


Heartsong

by NightFoliage



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Aoko/Akako/Saguru, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Ran/Sera, Series Rewrite, Slow Burn, Sonoko/Makoto - Freeform, Soulmates, Universe Alteration, as in nothing happens in this fic lol, but there is no singing in this fic, side pairings are very minor and are only hinted, where you can hear your soulmate sing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-05-14 00:56:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19262710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightFoliage/pseuds/NightFoliage
Summary: In this universe, when someone sings, their soulmate gets the song stuck in their head.Where:Shinichi doesn’t care for soulmates. They may exist, but he’s not going to let them dictate his life or his choices. It’s pure irony that it’s not his soulmate that takes the decision out of his hand, but the Black Organization.Kaito has been raised on the best soulmate story: his parents’. Even as he gets older and things get complicated, the idea of soulmates (his soulmate), still holds a special place in his heart. Then he becomes Kid and his life is no longer just about himself.This is how their soulbond affects them.





	1. Shinichi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinichi doesn’t allow the idea of soulmates to affect him. (They still do anyways.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters 156-159 for the first meeting of Conan and Kaito Kid. Anime Episode 76 for their first meeting. 
> 
> Date Published: 6/17/19
> 
> Word Count: ~4.4k

When Shinichi is young, he doesn’t realize the song that plays in his head isn’t normal. It’s only when he starts kindergarten and starts studying the art of deduction does he realize that the voice in his head is abnormal. Theories start popping into his head, from potential medical conditions, someone bugging him, telepathy, but his parents are quick to explain what it means when he tells them about it.  

“Shin-chan, it means you have a soulmate!” Hs mother, Yukiko, declares loudly. She quickly glances at his father, Yusaku, who gives her an unreadable look. 

“Soulmate?” He asks. It’s not an unfamiliar concept, but he’s always thought it to be a fictional concept, like love-at-first-sight. 

“Soulmate,” Yusaku confirms. 

“Ehh…” He’s no longer interested. As long as it was normal and didn’t affect his life, then he didn’t really care. Shinichi walks away, but his father scoops him up a second later. Yukiko quickly adds her support by curling into Yusaku, sandwiching the boy.

“Shin-chan, don’t run away” Yukiko says with a pout, gently poking her sons cheek. 

Seeing how he is unable to  escape, Shinichi settles into his father's arms and curls into his mother’s touch (unwillingly of course). 

“Not everyone has a soulmate,” his father adds. “But those that do can hear their soulmate’s heartsong. When your soulmate sings, you can hear their voice in your head. If you’ve had a song stuck in your head recently, that might be your soulmate singing.” 

“And? What does that mean for me?” Shinichi asks. He doesn’t understand why it’s so important. 

“It means there’s someone special for you out there,” his mother says. “Out of all the people in the world, out of all the voices you could hear, this voice is for you.” 

Shinichi scowls. But the voice he hears isn’t Ran’s voice. How could this soulmate that he’s never met before more important than the people he has now?

He’s suddenly skeptical about the explanation, and he thinks his parents might have been teasing him if it wasn’t for the fact that they were forcing him to listen. He hasn’t disproved their explanation yet, so Shinichi shouldn’t toss out the theory. He’ll have to research the topic in depth. Read a few books, maybe talk to Professor Agasa or his teacher-

Then a thought occurs to him. 

“Mom, Dad, are you two soulmates?” He asks. 

They share a look. 

“We’re not soulmates, neither of us have a heartsong,” Yukiko admits. 

“Then why is my soulmate so special? I don’t have to be with my soulmate, right?” Shinichi asks. 

“But isn’t it romantic, Shin-chan? The thought of someone special just for you?” Yukiko says, clasping her hands together. 

“Yes. You should appreciate it, Shinichi. It’s true you don’t have to fall in love with this person, but since you have the opportunity, it would be a waste if you didn’t pursue it,” Yusaku adds. 

“I guess,” Shinichi says, not wanting to argue. He’s not sure he agrees with either of them, especially know that he knows the two of them aren’t soulmates. But maybe they’re so adamant about soulmates because neither of them have one?

“Well, Shinichi has a lot of time to think about it,” Yukiko says, placing a soft kiss on her sons head before turning to give Yusaku a kiss. 

“That’s true,” Yusaku absently agrees before returning the kiss. 

Ugh, right in front of him too. 

Shinichi struggles out of his parent’s hold and they let him drop back into the ground. Yukiko gives him an affectionate on the head and Yusaku ruffles his hair. Neither of them look away from the other’s eyes. Shinichi walks away, fixes his hair, and considers this new information. 

The first thing he does is look for information about soulmates and heartsongs. Most of the information in the school library is useless. They’re all stories, fantastical and made-up. When he checks the local library, they don’t distinguish between fact and fiction. He can’t trust if they’re fantasy and exaggeration. He can’t even trust some of the information in his house, filled with stories from his father and the various roles his mother has acted in. 

However, by combing through references from his house and Professor Agasa’s he manages to get an accurate portrait of soulmates and heartsongs. He doesn’t know if he believes all of it, but there was one researcher by the initials M.S. that put out the most interesting research paper:

_ Humans have the capability of being telepathic. There is a section of the brain that facilitates this phenomenon… _

Shinichi skips over the science parts, he would read them later:

_ As this section of the brain is found in all humans, it is possible that all humans have the potential to be telepathic. Telepathy, being a way to connect with other humans mentally. However, after years of disuse in humans (most likely due to population growth and the advent of technology, see page 37 regarding more information on this topic) the ability has been diluted.  _

_ Not everyone has the ability to properly utilize this section of their brains. And those that can may not realize that they are using ‘telepathy’. People may not realize that ‘being able to tell when someone is lying,’ or ‘getting a bad feeling about someone’ may be their telepathic organ at work. These feelings or bursts of intuition are a culmination of the thoughts that the telepath is receiving.  _

_ Often a person with ‘telepathic ability,’ can only use their abilities on people they are close to.  _

_ This implies the ability was likely grown as a result of humans forming communities… _

Although interesting Shinichi skipped through to the part about soulmates and heartsongs:

_ A soulmate is defined by people who are uniquely connected with one another. A heartsong is defined by a specific phenomenon; when a soulmate(s) sings, the other soulmate can hear the singing. It is often described as ‘getting a song stuck in one’s head’. _

_ A soulmate, otherwise known as a heartsong, is an outlier among telepathic abilities.  _

_ Although those who have the developed brain center for telepathy might have telepathic abilities, provable telepathic abilities are rare (less than 0.03% of the population have proven abilities). However, the soulmate/heartsong is found in 1 of 2 people. The distance between soulmates does not affect the heartsong. This goes against the notion that telepathy in humans was grown in close communities.  _

_ However, this theory can be used as a hypothesis for why heartsongs exist. As humans propagated, they were unable to connect with each other due to multiple factors: distance, language, culture religion,etc. Perhaps the human brain recognized that without a reason to connect to one another, humans would grow further apart, away from the small communities that once existed.  _

_ My hypothesis is the heartsong ability is a solution the telepathic brain developed to bridge the gap between people.  _

_ This is supported by the fact that not everyone has a soulmate, their telepathic ability isn’t strong enough. Soulmates often run in the family, it’s an inherited trait, not one that appears out of nowhere or by fate like media suggests. On average, people can only project and receive a heartsong at six or older, when the telepathic ability has matured.  _

_ In addition, the ‘heartsong’ ability itself is only a projection of thoughts. Research has shown that the ‘heartsong’ is not only the words that your soulmate sings aloud, although it is the most commonly received message. It’s dependent on what the soulmate is concentrating on. As a result, soulmates often get a glimpse into their partner’s life and get ‘impressions’ of their soulmates.  _

_ Because people are taught that soulmates are favorable, then whenever soulmates meet, their impression of each other is favorable, no matter the circumstances of each other’s lives. Again, a way to favorably bring people together and create more communities.  _

_ An additional hypothesis I will explore is how heartsongs develop, why two people connect as ‘soulmates’. My theory is that because the telepathic brain center has weakened, a combination of factors must be met before two brains can connect and develop the heartsong. It would explain why it is most common to only have one heartsong.  _

_ In this research paper, theories about soulmates and heartsongs will be addressed... _

Shinichi reads through the research paper thoroughly. He has to look up many of the words, but he finds himself agreeing. And though it’s only a research paper presenting hypotheses, and Shinichi knows he shouldn't be taking them as fact, they only reinforce his beliefs. Specifically when when he gets exposed to one particular line:

_ Based on these findings, it is possible that soulmates and heartsongs aren’t inherently romantic.  _

Soulmates and heartsongs aren’t inherently romantic. 

His soulmate could be special to him, but they didn’t have to be the one he loved. 

So Shinichi decides pretty early on that soulmates are silly and he wouldn’t let a childish voice in his head decide who he was going to be with his whole life. (The decision is not AT ALL affected by one Mouri Ran.) It’s not what Shinichi wants, and so at the tender age with all the logic a 5 year old had, Shinichi decides he’s never going to sing. Ever. It makes sense at the time and unlike other 5 year olds, he has the determination and self-control to follow through. 

He pretends to sing when necessary and his horrible singing voice makes it so that he often gets a pass on singing. The rare times he wants to sing: the school anthem, on car and bus rides, and events, he merely speaks aloud. 

Knowledge of his terrible voice (he is absolutely not tone deaf, simply vocally challenged) gets around to everyone. As a result, no one suspects that the reason he doesn’t sing has to do with soulmates. And as he gets older, no one expects him to sing. 

But he hears his soulmate sing; childish songs, popular songs, the school anthem. Shinichi files the information away in his mind, though he never acts on it. He might have been able to narrow down who they were if he really wanted to, but he doesn’t. He picks up the small things though, things he can’t ignore or tune out. His soulmate was japanese, male, and of similar age. Judging by his voice and how he pronounced certain words, Shinichi whittled down the regions in which his soulmate is from. He tries not to listen too closely, he wants to stay ignorant. 

But he can tell his soulmate is a happy person, playful based on their song choices. Their singing voice is okay, but they sing with such force that Shinichi can tell they must be charismatic. 

The number of people it could be goes down one by one as he grows older. 

But still he looks to Ran and wonders. 

-0-

When Shinichi is in middle school he gets the startling realization that Ran has a heartsong, a soulmate. 

It happens when they go to America with his mother. They’re walking in the airport terminal in line when Ran sings a few lines under her breath, in English. 

At the time, Shinichi had blinked because it wasn’t the song playing over the loudspeakers. It could have been a song they’ve heard over the course of their trip, but Shinichi doesn’t recall any with the lyrics or the melody. She continues to sing and hum it absentmindedly, her pronunciation clear enough that Shinichi can look the song up later. 

When they approach a customs agent, Ran stops singing and loses her train of thought. The agent talks to her in english and Ran manages to fumble out an answer, a far cry from her perfect pronunciation from before. Shinichi chuckles under his breath and Ran shoots him a glare. Maybe he’ll tease her later. 

He has to hold back another chuckle at the difference between her ability to speak when she’s singing and when she’s on the spot. When she was singing it was almost like a different person was speaking…

Shinichi pauses. 

He looks at Ran again, who is waiting for the customs agent to finish with her passport. 

Now that he thought about it, Ran’s english level was only a 3 at best-

The customs agent calls him to the desk and Shinichi shoves those thoughts into a box he tries to put aside in his mind. At least, he tries to. But the thoughts rattle and are always at the corner of his mind through their whole trip back. However, he manages to hold back on making any theories (because he’s too afraid to think about the possibilities). 

When they go back to class, Shinichi puts if off until they finally have english class. Perhaps he remembered incorrectly and her ability was better than- Ran was called on by the teacher to read the board. She was passable, but not as good as when she had sang. 

And before Shinichi can stop himself, the facts lineup in his mind. Ran had been able to sing perfectly in english and hadn’t been able to help herself (as if she had a particular song stuck in her head, like it was being sung to her, by someone). She had only started singing and humming when they were in America (because if her soulmate was in America, they would have been in the same time zone). And the song wasn’t one Shinichi recognized or ever heard before. 

Which meant that he wasn’t her soulmate. 

And Ran had a soulmate that wasn’t Shinichi. 

Does she know? 

Does it  _ matter _ to her?

It’s an invasive thought that pops into his head, but the important one. She was a fan of soulmates, that much was true, but did Ran  _ believe  _ in them, that was the question he should be asking. 

Her parents were soulmates. They were childhood friends who had only discovered they were soulmates in high school. Their discovery of being each others soulmates had facilitated the start of their relationship. But being soulmates couldn’t make their relationship be perfect. And being each other’s heartsongs couldn’t keep them together. They fought constantly and even used their heartsong ability to annoy each other. 

Ran was constantly trying to get them to fix their relationship, but Shinichi had assumed it was because they were her parents, not because they were soulmates. (Although that had been an argument of hers many a time on why they make up, maybe she did believe deep in them.) Was it a plus or a minus to her belief in soulmates, or did it not affect her opinion at all? 

Shinichi thought they were of a similar mindset with each other. There were times where Shinichi would share a look with Ran and- and he thought she felt the same. Soulmates didn’t factor into what they had. He knew how he felt, but was unable to take the first step, because he was so scared of losing what they already had. 

Did Ran not do the same because of her soulmate? 

There could be other reasons of course. She didn’t want to make the first move, believing that he should make the first move. She was shy. She didn’t want to be rejected by him. She believed that he didn’t like her back. She didn’t like him or liked someone else (he practically choked at that explanation, but he couldn’t rule anything out). 

Maybe she knew he had a soulmate and didn’t want to get in the way? 

Or… Ran was waiting for her soulmate. 

He started second guessing his ability to confess to Ran. He already had doubts (there were so many reasons why he shouldn’t confess), but the fact that Ran had a soulmate changed everything. 

(He hated it. When he was young he had already decided that his soulmate wasn’t going to affect his decisions. Why should Ran’s soulmate have such a large impact?)

(Maybe Shinichi was just a coward.) 

He decides to collect more evidence. If he knows for sure what Ran’s feeling then he can confess. He can reveal the truth. 

(Perhaps his opinion of heartsongs and soulmates only worsen when time passes and he  _ knows  _ he should talk to Ran about his feelings, about their feelings, but he just can’t.) 

-0-

Heartsongs only become a more popular topic as they grow older. More people start developing heartsongs and more people start planning their future. Romance and love is an inescapable topic in high school. 

The talk about heartsongs only gets worse when Ran becomes close friends with Sonoko. The girl reads all of the trending articles and consumes all the cheesy heartsong media.Worse, she even gets Ran into the stuff. (Shinichi will never admit that he starts reading a few series as a result of Ran’s burgeoning interest. Although the day that Sonoko finds out, is the first day he gets into a big argument with her and becomes her friend. From then on, Sonoko and Ran knew to only suggest the good series’ to Shinichi. As much as heartsongs and soulmates were a taboo to him, Shinichi was the son of a writer and an actress. He could appreciate a good story.) 

Sonoko was always going on about how her perfect soulmate was going to be amazing, with a heart as kind as his face was handsome. And her heartsong would be playing classical music for her in her mind. 

At the time Shinichi had held back an eye roll. 

However, Ran had looked at Sonoko puzzled. 

“Sonoko, don’t you have a heartsong?” She asks.

That caught his attention. Shinichi had been under the impression that Sonoko was dreaming what her soulmate was like. 

“No, I don’t think I do,” Sonoko said with a flip of her hand, dismissive. “Sometimes I think I do, a husky and cool voice, but it might be my imagination. I don’t hear it very much. Even if I did, my parents want to arrange my marriage.”

At the time, Sonoko had laughed it off, but both Ran and Shinichi had given each other looks. They both knew how romance obsessed Sonoko was. It seemed sad, how matter of fact she was about having an arranged marriage despite her love of soulmates and heartsongs. 

After that Shinichi gave her a break on her obsession with the soulmate business. She was a die hard soulmate fan, but had no soulmate to speak of, while both he and Ran had one. 

He observes her for a few days after their talk. Shinichi doesn’t know why, maybe it’s because he’s worried, or maybe he wants to observe the behavior of a person without a soulmate. So he watches her when they’re together and notes that she didn’t have the characteristic behavior of one with a soulmate. No humming, no odd changes in mood, no looking up songs by their lyrics or melodies, nothing. 

Even Shinichi had trouble controlling his reactions because of the heartsong. Sonoko must not have a heartsong. 

However the theory comes to a head when he and Sonoko go watch Ran’s karate practice. The practice is a quick one, right before a tournament. Unfortunately, the tournament is taking place during school hours so neither of them can go cheer for Ran. 

Shinichi watches the practice, learning as much as he could, as all good detectives should. Sonoko loudly cheers on Ran and the rest of the team. When they start going over their punching forms, Sonoko went along with them.

Luckily, the karate team seems enthused by Sonoko’s cheering, because Shinichi was getting a bad case of second hand embarrassment. He has to look away and he hopes Ran appreciates Sonoko’s enthusiastic attempts at cheering. 

But something brings his gaze back to Sonoko, there’s something peculiar that catches his attention. Huh. While her form was off, her rhythm and timing were impeccable. And her breathing was in sync with the others. He blinks and looks back at the practitioners. 

...Could it be? 

Well- it couldn’t be Ran, could it? Shinichi discreetly looks back and forth between the two, and determines that they weren’t soulmates. He uses the rest of the practice to deduct that none of the others in the club were Sonoko’s soulmate. 

Perhaps it’s a coincidence? No, one day isn’t enough time to come to a conclusion. 

An observation of Sonoko over the next few days has Shinichi noticing some very interesting details. While Sonoko wasn’t prone to the humming that was normal of having a soulmate, or having a song stuck in her head, she did have a habit of tapping; tapping a foot, her pencil, her finger against the desk. It was never loud, which was why no one ever noticed it, but it was a habit at ends with Sonoko. Despite her energetic nature, she was a rich girl with good manners. 

She never noticed the habit and she always did unconsciously, as if she couldn’t help herself. And the rhythmic and soft tapping was unlike her loud personality, structured in a way that she wasn’t. 

Shinichi recalled what Sonoko had said once before about a ‘cool and husky voice’ that could have been her soulmate’s. It was possible that her soulmate wasn’t one to sing, like Shinichi. And it very likely was a soulmate to compel Sonoko to do the tapping. 

Slowly, a picture of her soulmate began to form in Shinichi’s head. They were probably Japanese and lived in Japan. Soulmates who thought in different languages or were in different time zones were usually easy to distinguish. Perhaps someone the same age as them, they would sing the school anthem at the same time as Sonoko did. 

Someone who did club activities, and Shinichi’s mind went back to how synced Sonoko was with the club. It was a bit of a leap, but perhaps a practitioner of karate. 

They had to be unlike the heroes in Sonoko’s novels, or at least, not as flashy as them. A person who was calm and steady. Structured. Maybe a little on the serious side. 

Really, the person was starting to sound perfect for the kind, albeit flighty and energetic, Sonoko. A soulmate that could keep her grounded and protect her; be her hero. Someone who wouldn’t treat her differently because of the amount of money she had. Shinichi hoped that they were as strong, kind, and as handsome as Sonoko imagined them to be. 

(Maybe it was a bit unrealistic of him to think that Sonoko had a soulmate just from a few days of observation, but Shinichi was a bit of a romantic and he wanted the best for the people he knew.)

The thought of a strong, kind, and good-looking karate practitioner brought someone else to mind, and Shinichi wipes away the association. There is only one truth, and just because Shinichi came to a certain conclusion, didn’t mean that the reality wasn’t different. Annoying or not, Sonoko didn’t deserve a jerk for a soulmate so Shinichi would be sure to vet the guy if he existed.

Maybe Shinichi was overreacting. 

What were the chances that all three of them would have soulmates? 

-0-

Over the years, Shinichi’s soulmate has calmed down, changed from the rambunctious child Shinichi was first introduced to. His soulmate still sings, quite often, quite loudly, and very obnoxiously, as if he was doing so on purpose. He doesn’t know if the singing is directed towards him, but he thinks that maybe this is just a personality trait of his soulmate. But his soulmate also gets quieter. He starts humming more often than not, absently, background music for his soulmate’s life. On many occasions, Shinichi works with the police with a song in his head, keeping him grounded even with all the death and misery around him. Sometimes the songs lull him to sleep even though he wonders why his soulmate sleeps even later than he does. 

He tries not to let it affect him too much, but it does. Even if he’s carefully solving a mystery, Shinichi’s thoughts wander back towards his soulmate, awake and vibrant throughout the day. But thinking about his soulmate makes Shinichi think of Ran and her smile, and her kindness, and her warmth. 

And he can’t stop thinking about them. 

His mind wraps around them and turns his thoughts round and round. Even during cases he can dedicate at least a little bit of brain power to them. 

Shinichi needs to resolve this vicious cycle. Of being apathetic about soulmates, but letting them consume him his thoughts. Of loving Ran, perhaps even being loved by Ran, but staying silent. He’s let himself stay in limbo for too long, he needs to take action. 

They enter their second year of high school when Shinichi decides he has to be honest with Ran. He wants to be with her, and to do that, he needs to tell her the whole truth: about his soulmate, his opinion on soulmates, her soulmate, and his feelings for her. If being a detective has taught him anything, when the truth came out, everything else would be revealed. He just hopes that Ran would give him a chance. 

The date (not exactly a date, only an outing) to Tropical Land should have been the perfect chance. There are fireworks at night in the amusement park. When they start, Shinichi could bring Ran somewhere private where they could talk. It could have been both romantic and practical, Ran liked fireworks and the fireworks would cover the sound of their conversation. 

It would have been the end of everything: the end of the night, the end of their date, and the end of the silence between them 

Then Shinichi had to go and follow the men in black and get involved with the Black Organization. 

When the world had been fading around him and his body had been burning in pain; when Shinichi had been dying and taking his last breaths, Shinichi was filled with regret. Regret over not telling Ran his feeling. Regret over living a short life. And regret for leaving his soulmate with a broken bond. Would his soulmate notice the silence? Or had Shinichi’s habits already ended that bond long ago? 

He was leaving people behind. 

They would be okay without him. 

His head pressed into the cool grass and dirt beneath him. He was fading. It would be over soon. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note - I love soulmate tropes! And the DCMK has so many wonderful soulmate fics. I wanted to try my hand at writing one.


	2. Kaito

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaito loves his soulmate. (However, he may have to give them up.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Date Published: 6/20/19
> 
> Word Count: ~5.7k

When Kaito is young, he can tell his parents everything and they in turn always listen. He chatters about animals, school, the tricks he’s tried, an interesting cloud he saw in the sky, everything. They listen to his every word. So when Kaito starts talking about the voice he hears in his head, his parents are quick to teach him what was actually happening. They sit him down, one on each side of him.

“Soulmate?”

“That’s right, Kaito. The voice you’re hearing is your soulmate,” Toichi says.

“A soulmate is someone very special to you. They’re special because you can hear their voice when they sing,” Chikage adds.

Kaito carefully considers the words. “Aren’t soulmates lovers?” He asks with all the innocence only a small child could have.

His parents jump at the question.

“Well-” Toichi coughs, “That is to say-”

“Kaito! Where did you learn that?” His mother exclaims. She sounds surprised, not angry, so Kaito doesn’t even think twice about answering.

“That’s what dad taught me. He said that his ‘soulmate was his heartsong, but also his heart and his love,’” Kaito says, as if repeating someone’s exact words.

Normally, Chikage isn’t one for grinning, but when she does, her whole face lights up. She turns her gaze towards Toichi who flushes and looks away from her as if she is too bright to look at She’s about to tease him, her expression playful, but she just manages to hold back. Instead, she turns Toichi face so he has to look at her, before smoothly stealing a kiss.

Kaito looks away, uninterested. Do they really have to be so affectionate in front of him?

“My queen of hearts, do be gentle with me,” his father murmurs above him.

“Calling me a queen when I have always been a thief. What a fool,” his mother replies, her voice affectionate.

“Is it stealing if it has been given freely?”

Kaito rolls his eyes. He’s about to do a dazzling magic trick to catch their attention, when he’s turned to face them. Both of his parents are red-cheeked and smiling.

“Sorry, Kaito. We were talking about soulmates?” Toichi says, trying to be serious again, but unable to stop himself from grinning.

“Are you two soulmates?” Kaito asks.

“Yes, we are,” Chikage says, and she and Toichi share a tender look before turning their attention to Kaito again. “But that doesn’t mean soulmates have to be romantic. They can be your best friend or like family!”

“Hmm…”

They continue to explain to him what soulmates are, what a heartsong is, and numerous other little details. During their explanation they tell him about what to expect, how things may change, and how he can always talk to them about his soulmate.

But Kaito doesn’t know who his parents are trying to fool. Although Kaito didn’t particularly care for the mushy part of soulmates, he knew that his soulmate was going to be someone he wanted to be with for life. He was sure of it.

So Kaito sings for his soulmate loudly and often.

His soulmate doesn’t sing back, but Kaito figures his soulmates embarrassed. (They didn’t sound like a very good singer, the few times that Kaito remembers them singing.) And even if they don’t sing, Kaito can fill the silence with his own singing. But besides the singing, his life doesn’t change very much with the discovery of having a soulmate.

And now that he knows what a soulmate is and has one, his parents will pull him aside to share their side of their romance with him. He listens intently, because the way they tell each story is like a secret and Kaito loves secrets.

His mother tells him about how she got into ballroom music because of how her soulmate got certain tunes stuck in her head. It was at odds with her taste, but it eventually grew on her. She researched each song and used to dream about the man that would suit the music. While her soulmate didn’t sing, she got sense of his personality by the occasional flash of laughter she would hear and the way his voice came to her like he was performing.

When he did arrive in her life, quite suddenly and surprisingly, it was with fanfare. Chikage didn’t know right away that Toichi was her soulmate until he swept her into his arms and spoke to her like she was precious.

Oddly, at this point, she always pouts at the memory.

Apparently he had one-upped her by knowing that she was his soulmate before she knew he was her soulmate. It both vexed her and made her melt at the fact that he just knew during their first meeting.

His father tells him about how his heartsong had a lovely singing voice, though she didn’t sing very often. Not on purpose at least, she sang spontaneously and when the mood suited her. Toichi had to be careful because he often got pulled into her pace.

He learned when she was sad, or mad, or happy, all through her singing.

He became invested in the voice and her, because when she sang, he often let everything else fade away to listen to her.  

That’s how he knew she was his soulmate. In the darkness, her voice cut through the shadows. The world became quiet for her voice. And in the silence he could only concentrate of his soulmate.

It felt right to sweep her into his arms, because she was his voice, his soulmate.

The moon had been exceptionally beautiful that night.

Both stories are wondrous and fill Kaito with glee. He gets some of their inside jokes now, Understands why they tease each other for certain things. He sees the impact of their first meeting in their interactions. Can see how their heartsong makes his mother look at his father when he sings. Sees how his father smiles when she speaks.

A whole new side of life has been revealed to Kaito. And he wonders, will he have that with his soulmate?

If his soulmate is as special as his parents say, he wants what they have.

-0-

His father passes away.

It’s sudden, it’s unexpected, and it changes Kaito’s whole life.

Life moves on.

Kaito gets older. He ages and gets wiser, but more importantly he starts noticing things he hadn't noticed before.

When he was younger, his parents hadn’t just been listening to him, they had been teaching him. In a way only his clever parents could pull off, they turned his own stories on him to teach him. Stories turned into lessons, which lead to Kaito practicing skills that normal children wouldn’t learn.

With his dad gone, the dynamic isn’t the same. Especially when he realizes that his mother is having a hard time seeing him and not his father. Learning on his own is difficult, but he’s determined to learn all of his father’s and mother’s magic tricks, even without their help.

He gets even older and realizes that Aoko is not his soulmate. Kaito has loved Aoko since she walked into his life. She’s lively, bright, and she absolutely saved him after his father passed away. If it wasn’t for Aoko, the overwhelming enormity of his father’s death and subsequent effects of his death would have swallowed him whole. And he feels like he was only able to become the cheerful trickster that he is, as a response to her energetic and animated personality.

It isn’t surprising that Kaito loves her. Anyone would fall in love with her.

He wonders if he could be with her. Turns the thought over every once in awhile, while maintaining his poker face. Aoko or his soulmate?

The matter is taken out of his hands when he mentions his soulmate in middle school.

“EHHH!!!!! BaKaito has a soulmate!” Aoko’s screech hits almost record highs and Kaito swears that he can hear the glass crack around him.

“Calm down, Ahoko! Don’t say it so loudly!” Kaito says, looking around to see that no one overheard.

They’re walking home from school, alone thankfully. Kaito looks around but doesn’t see anyone around. He sighs in relief.

“Hmm, why don’t you want anyone to know?” Aoko asks, giving him a look. It promises Kaito pain if he tries to lie.

Kaito quickly holds his hands up to stop any potential attacks. “Well, I don’t want all of my fans to treat me differently. And…” His soulmate was special. He didn’t feel like sharing with anyone else.

“Hm…” Aoko swings her bag lazily in Kaito’s direction. Kaito easily sways out of the way to dodge. Her gaze is thoughtful. Seems like he can’t lie to her, she already knows why he doesn’t want to say anything. After a moment, she resumes walking.

“I guess you aren’t my soulmate, then,” she says, matter of fact.

It’s not the answer he’s expecting-

Eh?

Did that mean Aoko has a…

“Eh?” Kaito stutersout. “Was that- are you saying- ah, wait-”

“I don’t have a soulmate,” Aoko cuts him off. “But I figured out you had one.”

She figured out that he had a soulmate?!? How- when-

No. That’s not important. What’s important is her reaction.

Kaito runs in front of Aoko, making her stop. Her expression looks normal, a combination of exasperation and fondness rolled into one. Somehow that makes his stomach flop. What was he expecting, that she be disappointed or angry that Kaito had a soulmate?

He doesn't know what to say in the face of her- her- nonresponsiveness to the fact that he has a soulmate.

“Isn’t it reassuring? That we aren’t each other’s soulmate?” Aoko says with a smile, as if the words aren’t absolutely shattering Kaito’s heart.

“Reassuring?” Kaito echoes.

“You know, after everything that has happened to the both of us... I’ve always wanted you to be happy Kaito. I don’t know if I could have made you happy, I don’t think I’m what you need… But a soulmate could make you happy,” she says, totally serious.

She’s still smiling.

Kaito wants to argue, wants to disagree, and say that they could be good for one another, but he can’t get the words out. They’re in middle school, so how does he know that they’re perfect for one another? How can he be sure he won’t like his soulmate? And how can he deny that Aoko knows him well enough that he shouldn’t push her opinions away?

“Well, BaKaito and I are only in middle school. Things may change in the future. That’s right! How about if you don’t find your soulmate, then we could give it a go?” Aoko says with a laugh, ruining the serious atmosphere.

Kaito sighs. She’s right though (not that he’ll admit it aloud). They have time to figure things out. They’re only in middle school. For now, Kaito can concentrate on finding his soulmate. If it doesn’t turn out well, then he can see about making Aoko happy.

After that, the conversation was tabled, although Kaito does agree with Aoko’s plan (probably taking it more seriously than the girl meant it to be). From then on, Kaito decides to look for his soulmate. It’s a disservice to both Aoko and his soulmate if he doesn’t put his one-hundred percent into this. They’re both the love of his life, so he’ll do right by them.

However, early on in his search Kaito realizes something very important: his soulmate barely sings.

He thought maybe his soulmate could be shy, but that doesn’t explain the near silence of the bond. Kaito knows they’re similar ages, the songs he remembers long ago had been childish, unlikely to be younger, and at most only a few years older. But then he realizes that his soulmate would have at least sang the school anthem. Was his soulmate staying silent on purpose?

It was something that might have made him lose hope, but his heartsong wasn’t completely silent. At times he would hear a calm voice talk. Talk, not sing, which was odd, but the voice was passionate and cool and made Kaito melt, so he could forgive them. He wondered if the voice matched the person’s face, and imagines a handsome guy like himself, who was serious and intense.

Because it wasn’t a song, his soulmate’s voice wasn’t always clear, but Kaito could catch snatches of words, odds and ends, and statistics sometimes. It wasn’t the usual heartsong, but just being able to hear his soulmate was calming.

Kaito wondered why his soulmate didn’t sing, but there were a plethora of reasons why they couldn’t: an injury, a weak voice, a _really_ bad singing voice, etc.

Kaito hopes that’s the case.

With his eidetic memory, Kaito memorizes all the words he can catch from the soulbond, in order to narrow down who his soulmate might be. (Although sometimes all he has going are some random statistics or words, not enough to pull together a cohesive profile.) But he figures eventually, there will be something, anything, that will lead Kaito to his soulmate.

In the meantime, he still cares for Aoko, and tries to be one of her most important people. They don’t talk about soulmates ever again, and Kaito figures the topic may never come up until he finds his soulmate, or they get old enough that getting together is an option.

He actually finds himself quite optimistic about his love life when he thinks over his options.

That all changes when he falls into his father’s workshop.

The record explains so much about his father, but not enough. Kaito wants- no needs- no _craves_ to know more.

It’s pure instinct that makes Kaito don the costume. The suit fits perfectly: the cape easily attaches, he slides the top hat on, and sets the monocle into place. His blood is rushing in his ears but it’s not fear he feels, but excitement. He’ll confront Kaito Kid and find discover more about his father’s past.

Confronting the other Kaito Kid and revealing their lame trick, provides a rush like no other, And  when his mask comes off tumbling off, Kaito feels the costume get lighter. Triumphant music plays in his head and he can clearly see the world bathed in moonlight. He laughs. Why does he need a mask, when he has his poker face?

Then the secret comes out.

His father was Kaito Kid.

Something in him bursts. It was as if a delicate bubble had been holding in everything he had been keeping inside since his father’s death. Just the slightest bit of pressure had caused it to pop and disappear. He had been looking through that bubble and didn’t realize there was a screen there but now that it’s gone he has a whole new outlook. With that new outlook, Kaito realizes he can’t run away from the reality that’s been placed in front of him.

Surprisingly, (or maybe not surprisingly, his father was always larger than life) this new reality is so much _more_ than the life he was living before. The magic, the costume, the jewels- his purpose becomes clear.  It’s like a piece of himself is slotting into place and he can feel that this is the way things should be.

He needs to continue being Kaito Kid. It’s just keeping one little secret identity, it would be no problem.

Famous last words.

He should have known that there wouldn’t only be one secret.

Secrets start come pouring out the woodwork. If it wasn’t for his poker face then he would have drowned in them, unable to keep up with them all. But he’s keeping afloat because each new piece of information, each new secret, makes a terrible amount of sense. The secrets slides into place as if they always belonged in his life.

His memories of Ji and his parents shift. Now he knows they were thieves and he starts reviewing their teachings. His whole life,his parents were always teaching him. His father had taught him how to be a magician, but was he also teaching him how to be Kaito Kid? (His mother was the one to teach him sleight of hand, acrobatics, lock-picking, the list on and on. His mother had definitely been teaching him how to be a thief.)

Whether or not they were grooming him to be the next Kaito Kid, being the Phantom Thief feels right to Kaito.

Of course by keeping others secrets, they also become his own.

Suddenly, Kaito can’t talk to Aoko for everything anymore.

No, that wasn’t right. It was that Kaito felt he could no longer tell Aoko everything. He used to keep thing close to his chest: his feelings about his father’s passing (murder), his soulmate, but he never felt like he had to hide these things from Aoko.

But now he’s got a Kaito Kid shaped secret, that’s getting bigger and bigger with each heist. Now he’s glad that he and Aoko never tried for anything. Him being Kaito Kid would have ruined (can still ruin) their relationship.

She wouldn’t understand, at least not in the way he needed her to. Aoko would get the why, she knew better than anyone how his father's death affected him. But she wouldn’t get how it felt, the rush, the absolute joy and how utterly complete he felt over being Kaito Kid. She wouldn’t understand that to Kaito, being the Phantom Thief felt right.

It was better to keep it a secret from her.

(Sometimes, Kaito wonders if this is the reason why they’re not soulmates. Maybe they were never meant to be and their paths were predetermined long before they met. Maybe destiny planned for his soulmate to be understanding of Kaito’s career in thievery; a man even more perfect for him than Aoko.

He thinks about this in his moments of weakness.That there’s someone out there for him, that won’t be disappointed in him for being Kaito Kid like Aoko would be.

He needs that fantasy, if only so he doesn’t spill his secrets to Aoko when the guilt threatens to choke him and make him spew all his secrets to her.)

-0-

Of course things only get more complicated the deeper Kaito goes into the world of being a Phantom Thief. He’s seen more of the world now that his view has broadened, but he never thought that magic could actually be real.

Koizumi Akako is a reminder that the path he’s taken is exceptionally dangerous. He might have gotten lucky in the past, but this is the first time he’s taken so much damage from one of his heists.

But by meeting her, resisting her, and defeating her, he understands a little bit better the gift his magic can bring.

They come to an uneasy and unspoken truce after that whole.. debacle. Akako won’t stop her machinations, but they’re no longer deadly in nature, nor do they affect his heists.

-0-

Haluba’s appearance is a surprise. When his father was Kaito Kid, he only publicly had one rival to deal with, Inspector Nakamori. It’s unfair that Kaito has to deal with more adversaries, and one that was so sharp. (Later, Kaito would learn about Kudo Yusaku.)

Then Hakuba enrolls at his school.

Kaito understands that Hakuba is a straight-laced goody goody that wants to catch Kaito Kid, but he doesn’t get why that involves getting close to Aoko. While that ship has sailed for them, Kaito doesn’t want just anyone dating Aoko. It had to be someone who appreciated Aoko, someone liked her for who she was. Kaito only wanted the best for Aoko, and Hakuba was not the best.

(Although later Kaito admits that there might be some chemistry between them. He had said it jokingly, but the fact that they were both police kids was a connection in Hakuba’s favor. And Hakuba was good looking, if you were into the tall, blond, warm-eyed look. But most importantly, like Aoko, it looked like Hakuba didn’t have a soulmate. Or at least, Kaito didn’t think either of them had soulmates. It never came up with Aoko. Or maybe the guy didn’t believe in soulmates. In that way, Hakuba and Aoko were matched.)

But Hakuba proves himself to be an almost worthy opponent (almost). His presence makes heists just a little bit harder and his earnestness (on par with Inspector Nakamori’s), makes it difficult for Kaito to hate him.

Things start to settle between them all after the heist where Akako ‘proves’ that Kaito is not Kaito Kid. After that, Akako becomes an uneasy acquaintance. Then becomes a partner in crime. Hakuba too, seems to go after him less, even though the detective still thinks that Kaito is the Phantom Thief.

It’s like walking on a knife’s edge with so many people almost knowing his secret, and the person he doesn’t want to know the most, being surrounded by these people. He supposes it’s part of the thrill.

Interesting how his life as Kaito Kid starts bleeding into his normal life. It’s just more proof that he can’t be reckless with Aoko. (Or his soulmate.)

As a result, Kaito keeps a close watch on Hakuba and Akako.

After awhile he allows his observation of Akako fall to the wayside. Besides the few times that Kaito has seen Akako use magic, the girl is normal. (The guys worshipping her are a bit odd, but he gets the feeling she’s only taking advantage of their nature as opposed to actually brain washing them).

So Kaito turns his attention to Hakuba. He’s straight laced and absolutely no fun at all, and he’s exactly the type of person who doesn’t sing, causing their soulmate to think they don’t have a soulmate.

That thought leads to their first meeting at school. Hakuba had made a beeline to Aoko. At the time, Kaito had thought it was to annoy him, but what if that was just a bonus to Hakuba?

A detective of Hakuba’s caliber would be able to easily deduce their soulmate.

What if Aoko really is Hakuba’s soulmate? Is that why he’s interested?

Worse, what if he’s Kaito’s soulmate!!!

The thought makes him sick in bed for the night. Just his luck to have a straightlaced and boring detective as his soulmate.

Kaito spends a few days staring at the back of Hakuba’s head, hoping that he can figure out if Hakuba is his soulmate through sheer willpower. The first time that Hakuba smirks at him, Kaito recoils in disgust and makes sure to prank him.

Eventually, Hakuba is forced to sing for class, and Kaito determines that Hakuba is unlikely to be his soulmate. (Although, Kaito can’t be too sure.)

But that doesn’t write out the possibility of Hakuba being Aoko’s soulmate. That unknown eats at him. However, as time passes, Kaito realizes and accepts that Hakuba wouldn’t be a bad match for Aoko. He’s calm where she’s a disaster. He’s infallibly polite and was kind to the people in their class (except Kaito), including Aoko. He was socially awkward which worked with Aoko’s boisterous nature.

Kaito’s ire with Hakuba grows.

Until, one day, the class starts talking about soulmates and heartsongs.

It comes up every so often. Most people find out if they have soulmates by the time they hit high school. The combination of youth and hormones makes soulmate talk very popular amongst everyone. When the topic comes up this day, it looks like some of the girls have their sights on Hakuba.

“Neh, Hakuba-san, is the heartsong culture different in England?” A girl asks, failing to be subtle in her interest.

Hakuba, the polite bastard, smiles and gives her and the rest of the interested girls his full attention. “There are a few differences. If I remember correctly, in Japan soulmates are very important? In England they’re more of a guide then a sure thing.”

Kaito swallows down a curse. What if Hakuba and Aoko are soulmates, but Hakuba wasn’t interested? In Japan, finding one’s soulmate was pretty much a done deal for a life partner. What if this was the reason why Hakuba hadn’t made any attempts to talk to Aoko?

One of the girls gasps, “You mean soulmates don’t always get together?” The rest of the class starts paying more attention to the conversation, muttering amongst themselves.

Hakuba keeps his polite smile even though he can tell that the atmosphere has gotten a bit more hostile. “Soulmates always get together in Japan?” He asks instead of answering.

It does the trick and others start adding in their two cents.

“In Japan a lot of soulmates manage to meet each other. Or they grow up together. Now that I think about it, a lot of heartsongs meet in school.”

“That’s true. And only about half of people have them, so people without soulmates tend to date each other.”

“There was a study recently that showed a lot of Japanese soulmates tend to be in Japan too, right?”

“That’s where the difference comes in,” Hakuba jumps in. Everybody turns his way. “In England a lot of people have soulmates that aren’t in the area, or even speak a different language. Sometimes people go find their soulmates, but life doesn’t always work out perfectly.”

The whole classroom sighs in disappointment after hearing the reality of soulmates in England.

“However, soulmates are still thought to be very romantic. Extremely romantic if things work out,” Hakuba quickly adds.

That seems to satisfy the crowd and the discussion dissolves into idle chatter about soulmates.

Kaito watches as Hakuba busies himself with a book. It might be his imagination, but it looks like the HakuBastards ears are red. That was smooth of him, getting out of the conversation without having to reveal whether or not he had a soulmate. Look at him, only slightly ruffled from the interrogation.

Suddenly, Kaito feels the urge to jump up and shake the guy. He wants to yell at him and get some answers, damnit! Did he have a soulmate? Was his soulmate Aoko (or Kaito!)? Did he not have a soulmate? Was he even interested in Aoko?

Each question makes Kaito angrier and angrier. He gets so worked up, he pranks the whole class. Afterwards, he goes to the Blue Parrot during the off hours so he can sing his heart out. He hopes it annoys Hakuba (if he’s his soulmate, although he’s pretty sure he isn’t). And if his soulmate isn’t Hakuba, he hopes that his soulmate is getting the message that Kaito is here for them.

Even if he is angry-singing at them.

The thought that he’s angry-singing at his soulmate because of Hakuba makes Kaito grow even more furious.

Kaito was definitely going to get his revenge in their nest heist!

-0-

The next day, Kaito is brooding on the roof (not sulking, Ahoko), cooking up some truly evil schemes for Hakuba, when someone joins him.

He looks back and spots Akako closing the door behind her. She looks amused, and Kaito doesn’t feel any strong emotion or spell coming off of her, so he figures that this is just a spontaneous seduction or chat instead of a scheme.

“What’s wrong, Kaito-kun?” She asks, circling him.

Just a chat then. He’s tempted to ignore her, but knows that it’s a bad idea. He’s about to say something stupid just for kicks, when he realizes there’s a question he wants to ask her:

“Akako, do you have a soulmate?”

He wonders if he’s said something wrong when Akako stays silent. Kaito turns to look at her. She’s leaning against the fence, looking pensive. He turns his full attention toward her. He didn’t think it was such a serious question.

“Maybe I did, but not anymore,” she says softly. So softly, the words are almost carried away by the wind.

She looks- unsure. It’s one of the first times he’s seen her like this.

Akako turns to him, her gaze suddenly piercing. “Are you thinking about yours?”

Kaito instinctively jerks back. How did she know he had a soulmate? He thought only Aoko knew.

“It’s obvious now that I think about it. That night you resisted me, I thought it was because you were strong-willed. I also considered the fact that maybe your feelings were already directed towards another, making you less malleable to my manipulations. Well I see now it’s all of those things,” Akako says with a smirk.

It doesn’t make him happy, her words. In fact they set him on edge. It’s like there’s a pressure  gently working at the side of his mind. He places a hand to support his head. It was uncomfortable, yet familiar-

“Are you doing something?” Kaito grits out.

Leaning back on the fence, Akako looks away. The pressure lessens and fades as she closes her eyes. “Do you know where soulmates and heartsongs come from?” She asks.

Silence from Kaito’s end. He doesn’t know where she’s getting at and he’s still recovering from- whatever it is that she did.

“Humans are always trying to make a connection with each other,” she explains, not waiting for a reply from Kaito. “So much so that their minds changed to do the same. It’s a mix of chance and destiny when two minds connect to create a soulbound. However, people are people. They do what they please, bond or no bond.”

At this point, she shrugs. It’s rather unlike her and the motion draws his eye. Despite the casualness of the gesture, it makes her seem older, wiser. Like something inhuman looking at the petty actions of humans and sighing as if they were beneath them.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Akako is a witch, who has the ability and knowledge beyond the scope of what most humans would understand.

Her gaze turns to him and he feels his skin crawl. She’s looking down on him, but Kaito doesn’t know if he can turn her opinion around like last time. It’s different this time. A magic trick can’t change the look in her eyes, the one that has thousands of years of knowledge behind it.

“But you, Kaito,” Akako continues, “You crave that bond like no other. You ache for it and your bond responds to your desires. It will accept no other. It’s one of the reasons why your mind is so resilient.”

She turns away and the pressure fades away completely. He can finally relax.

“It almost makes me want to give up on you,” Akako murmurs with a smile.

She continues to look away from him as if she’s done with the conversation.

Well Kaito isn’t done, not by a long shot.

“Knowing that doesn’t make me trust you more or make me sympathetic to your feelings. In fact, I'm a little pissed off right now,” Kaito says.

He’s actually furious, abnormally so, but that’s due to Akako messing with the bond. Normally he would be interested in learning more about soulmates and heartsongs, but the intrusion against his mind has set him on edge.  

Akako looks at him and then immediately averts her eyes. “Sorry, Kaito. I didn’t think it would affect you so much,” she says, airily.

However, her body language doesn’t match her words. She looks.. uncomfortable.

“Explain it to me.”

Akako looks back at Kaito, and her gaze is back to normal. She has the look of a high school girl that was embarrassed.

“Explain it to me,” Kaito repeats. “‘Maybe I had a soulmate, but not anymore.’ What did you mean?”

She’s about to brush him off, he’s sure of it, but then she pauses. Akako is smart enough to know the peace offering for what it is. Explain or have Kaito leave mad.

“Witches can manipulate the bond process. By doing so we can protect ourselves from any mental attacks and we can create our own bonds. Normally witches are only connected to their coven and so from a young age our minds are cut off from bonding,” Akako explains.

“So you’re not connected to anyone right now,” Kaito says.

“Correct,” Akako confirms.

Kaito can read between the lines. So witches have their minds cut off before the development of a heartsong. Akako might have had a soulmate, but the bond was cut before she (or her soulmate) could hear each other. Witches also had to make their own bond. Which meant Akako had no soulmate.

And if Kaito understood it correctly, that pressure he had been feeling was Akako, feeling him out with her mind, trying to create a soulbond. Now that he thinks about it, this wasn’t even the first time she had tried.

But like today, and each time in the past, Kaito had rejected the advance every single time.

Her gaze was sad now. “Maybe there will be a day you will become mine,” she says.

He won’t ever become hers. The only one for him is his soulmate. He doesn’t need Akako and what she’s offering. However, he doesn’t say that aloud.

And as Kaito looks at Akako, he thinks that maybe she knows that too.

-0-

Heist after heist, Kaito settles into the role of Kaito Kid. He knows his mission: find Pandora and destroy it. Then get the people who killed his father. When he realizes there’s no turning back, Kaito accepts then and there that nothing can happen between he and Aoko. Ever. There are too many lies and secrets between them. But he hopes that she finds someone that can make her happy like he couldn’t.

But once he accepts this reality, he also comes to the realization that nothing can happen between he and his soulmate, even if Kaito finds them, Kaito can’t pull them into his dangerous world.

He’s a romantic at heart and rejecting his soulmate almost breaks his resolve. His soulmate was probably very special, someone who could match Kaito and be his partner. But he has to keep his soulmate safe and that meant keeping away from the phantom thief.

That’s the reality. However, when Kaito dreams he wonders if his soulmate could suit all his facets, Kuroba Kaito and Kaito Kid. After all, his parents met on a moonlit heist. Why couldn’t he find his soulmate the same way? Meeting his soulmate on a rooftop during a full moon, that was the dream.

After Pandora, after avenging his father, he’ll look for his soulmate in earnest and woo them properly.

For now, his only love was the full moon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Thanks for all the lovely comments! I was so surprised (and happy) to have so many responses to this fic. I stayed up a little late to post this chapter, so I hope everybody enjoys it!


	3. The Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The title says it all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word Count: ~5.1k
> 
> Date Published: 07/01/19
> 
> Author’s Note: Mostly from Kaito’s point of view because we get Conan’s/Shinichi’s point of view from the series.

When Shinichi becomes Conan, things change. 

Obviously, there are changes (his body, his voice, the fact that no one listens to him because he’s a freakin’ kid!), but the biggest one he cares about is the change in his relationship with Ran. They’ve always been by each other’s side. It’s a defining trait in their relationship, that they would always be there for one another when the others in their life wouldn’t. It was because they had this connection that Shinichi had thought they could also have a romantic relationship. Who else could understand the other as well as they could? (Shinichi definitely thought that a soulmate couldn’t.)

That night at Tropical Land changed everything. How could he pursue a romantic relationship with Ran, when he (Shinichi) couldn’t be by her side? The Black Organization has forced Shinichi into hiding and he isn’t about to drag Ran into danger. Not to mention, he doesn’t know when he’ll be able to turn back into Shinichi. 

It’s best that nothing romantic happens between them. It makes Shinichi feel like a coward, but he can’t hold onto Ran and expect her to be safe. He can’t even be by her side as Shinichi. But Ran was strong, she would be okay without him. And there was always the possibility that her soulmate might appear. 

(Even with that in mind, Shinichi still feels like he’s running away and giving up on one of the greatest things in his life.)

But life moves on. He stays by Ran’s side as Conan. He gathers information on the Black Organization. He makes Kogoro-occhan famous. His parents find out about his situation, but afterwards they decide to leave him be. He meets Hattori Heiji (who is a pain). He meets Hattori Heiji again (who is again, a pain), but then Hattori finds out who he really is and he gains an ally. 

He hates to admit it, but he’s grateful that Hattori found out (and his parents, but that’s another thing he’ll never admit aloud). It had been difficult doing this without an ally that wasn’t the Professor. There was comfort in having someone else be in the thick of things. 

He would have gone crazy if his secret hadn’t been shared somehow. Having to act like a kid, pretend he isn’t solving every crime that comes his way, and waiting for the Black Organization to show its face, its eating Shinichi away and leaving Conan behind. Conan was supposed to be a temporary facade, but months after his transformation, he realizes that he may be in this form for much longer than he expected. (It’s frightening.)

He tries to hold onto everything that makes him Shinichi, for as long as possible. However, to keep his two identities separate, there are drastic changes he is forced to accept. The largest change (the one that makes him the most uncertain) was that as Conan, he is forced to sing. 

It doesn’t matter that he’s a terrible singer, as a kid with the Detective Boys as his friends (yes, he’s calling the Detective Boys his friends), Conan is persuaded to do everything with them, including singing. And there’s an odd pattern in his most recent cases, where there’s always something that has to do with singing, soulmates, or heartsongs. 

Shinichi hasn’t sang this much in the ten or so years he thought he had a soulmate. He doesn’t even want to know what his soulmate must think of him now. Hopefully they don’t run into other when Shinichi is Conan because he can’t bear to bring some innocent into the fold. How would he even explain what happened to him? 

(For over a decade, Shinichi has been deliberately ignoring the presence of his soulmate. However, the change into Conan and all the singing has forced him to acknowledge the fact that he has one. When Conan has the chance, he often spends time trawling through forums and posts about soulmates with unusual heartsongs. He dreads finding a post talking about how someone’s soulmate’s voice changed or deaged around the date Shinichi turned into Conan. He wouldn’t know what to do if that happens. The next course of action would probably be confronting his soulmate so they don’t accidentally draw attention from the Black Organization and place themselves in danger.) 

Speaking of his soulmate…

Ever since Shinichi has turned into Conan, he’s started to pay more attention to his heartsong. Not on purpose, and not because he’s interested, but because his paranoia has him paying attention to every little detail he can take in. Something, anything, that might help him in his mission. 

And he’s noticed that his soulmate is, there’s no other way to describe it, weirder. 

His soulmate seemed normal for his age. He sang songs for school, the school anthem, popular songs, and mixed in were a few songs from past generations (most likely songs that his soulmate’s parents enjoyed). His soulmate seemed to enjoy more jazzy tunes, grand themes. Surprisingly the songs suited his soulmate. It made Shinichi think that his soulmate is charismatic and popular (the opposite of Shinichi). 

But lately his soulmate’s song choice have been- eclectic. His soulmate will spend hours humming the same melody. The tune is calm, tranquil, and a bit melancholy. It’s a song that doesn’t match his soulmate, although let it be known that he sings it well. He believes it’s a tune to a waltz. 

But then his soulmate will switch to a more upbeat and happy song, but he’ll do it in the middle of the night. Conan has fallen asleep to these songs playing well into the night. 

Sad to happy, his soulmate’s moods switched in an instant. The mood swings were unexpected and odd. The hyperfixation on that one waltz, it must be associated with something. Conan wondered what. It spoke of obsession and unhealthy behavior. (Shinichi tries not to think how similar it was to his own.)

Then there are the odd songs that his soulmate has begun singing  _ at _ him. Very pointed songs about soulmates, with lyrics about scorned and wishy-washy lovers He’d worry that they’re addressed to him, if it wasn’t for the odd amount of songs mixed in having to do with magic. (The best case scenario was that they were for other people in his soulmates life, not him. The worst case scenario was… well, he hopes if he meets his soulmate than he can live to tell the tale) 

Conan frequently has to push thoughts of his soulmate out of him. This is exactly why he didn’t want a soulmate. He didn’t have time to be hypothesizing over what his soulmate is up to. All of his brain power should be dedicated to finding the Black Organization. And to do that, he needs to make Kogoro-occhan more famous. 

The heist notice for the Black Star isn’t his usual case, but a mystery is a mystery. 

The rest of the detectives and police officers can’t figure out the heist notice, but Conan can. When he does, he tries to decide how to knock out the old man. Listening to Kogoro-occhan, Conan is afraid that a whole squadron of officers are going to be led in circles by the terrible detectives deductions. He’s about to knock the man out, when he reconsiders. 

The roof is a hard place to control. It’s open, with no railings to speak of. Kid could easily escape if he saw a squad of officers waiting for him and they would need a squadron to pin down the thief. Perhaps the thief could be brought down if there was only person waiting for him. Or perhaps one kid could confront the thief. Everyone would be occupied with Kogoro-occha’s deduction. Conan could confront Kaito 1412 himself. 

And if Conan is alone...

He hasn’t been Shinichi in a while. Maybe this could be a good chance to take a break from being Conan and just be himself. 

\-----

Kaito’s in the middle of teasing Aoko when it happens. 

_ Crow why do you squawk so… _

The voice is childish and so obviously tone deaf- he pauses and before he knows it, Kaito is taking a mop straight to the face. 

“Kaito!” Aoko’s voice is shrill and cuts through the pain. Unfortunately, instead of being reassuring or helping him, the sound causes his ears to ring. Ouch, a different kind of pain on top of the other pain. Layered on top of the painis the sound of a tone deaf child singing. 

There are stars in his eyes and he closes them willing the spinning to stop. This must be what hell feels like. 

There are hands flapping at his side as if they were afraid to touch him. Then he feels his jacket being tugged off. There’s a soft hand placed feather light at his shoulder. There are broad and steady hands gently touching him, checking on him. Something soft is slid under his head and it helps with his aching head. 

There’s whispering all around him, but he can’t catch what the words are because of the singing. Why is this happening? 

“Kuroba.” 

A familiar voice cut through the noise. 

“I’m going to move you, can you handle it?” 

Kaito nods. Anywhere else is better than here. 

He’s being lifted straight up, and the hands slide away. His stomach lurches with the movement and he concentrates on anything else- the song and starts to hum the lullaby to himself. The journey is an odd one, and he doesn’t remember the middle, only the ending where he finds himself placed on a soft surface. 

There’s no more whispering, the ringing has faded, and the pain has lessened, but the singing doesn't go away. 

He opens his eyes. He’s in the infirmary. Hakuba is hovering above him. Not hovering, but taking his pulse and looking over his eyes and his head- shouldn’t the school nurse be doing this? 

Kaito automatically follows the finger that Hakuba places in front of his eyes. When Hakuba stops, Kaito realizes that he’s a little too close for comfort. Luckily Hakuba pulls away only a moment later. 

“Thankfully it doesn’t look like you have a concussion,” he says. “Do you want to sit up?” 

“I’m getting up,” Kaito says flapping his hands in front of him. He doesn’t need Hakuba’s help. Thankfully his words aren’t a lie and he manages to sit up under his own power. 

Hakuba hands him a cup of water, which Kaito silently takes. The guy watches him drink it. Under other circumstances Kaito might give him crap for it, but the worried pinch of Hakuba’s forehead says that Kaito should stay silent. When he finishes the first cup, he passes the cup to Hakuba who gets him another one. He drinks this one a little more slowly. 

Hakuba gives him a long look, hesitating at the edge of his bed. Then he nods and says, “I’ll go get the nurse and tell our teacher what happened.” 

“Thanks,” Kaito mumbles into his cup. 

Hakuba nods again, excusing himself from the room. 

Alone by himself, Kaito realizes the room is silent except for his humming. He stops once he realizes his soulmate isn’t singing anymore. 

And once Kaito realizes he’s alone he can finally freak out. Kaito sticks his face into the pillow and screams. 

“Why is my SOULMATE a cHiLD again!!!” His voice goes shrill at the end. He beats the pillow and the bed a few times. 

“Wait- have I been imagining my soulmate’s voice this whole time?”

“No- no- there’s no way that could be it. It was probably just a result of Aoko hitting me over the head. But they were a kid before Aoko hit me…”

“Maybe they were acting like a kid on purpose? Like a play? Or a weird sex thing… Don’t go down that road Kaito, don’t even think about it.”

Kaito thinks about it. 

Ohhhh, Kaito was now thinking about it. 

Kaito couldn’t stop thinking about it even when Hakuba came back with the nurse. After determining that he didn’t need to go to the hospital, the nurse suggests Kaito rest in the infirmary. (Alone. With only his thoughts to keep him company.) Before Kaito can do anything, Hakuba offers to take notes for him and the nurse agrees, leaving him alone. He tries to get some rest, but all he can think about is his soulmate. 

Kaito hasn’t heard them sing in a very long time. This was the first time he had heard them. Even with his promise not to search while he was Kaito Kid, Kaito hadn’t been optimistic about finding his soulmate. Oh, he would have searched the world for them, but he knew it wasn’t going to be easy because he barely heard his heartsong. 

And now they’re badly singing a kid’s song in a kid’s voice? 

(Huh. So maybe his theory that his soulmate didn’t sing because they were tone deaf was true.)

However, from what he remembered his soulmate had been a guy that was around his age. They appeared when he was six, so his soulmate was at most a few years younger. In fact, it would make more sense if his soulmate was older rather than younger. Six was pretty young to start having a heartsong...

He doesn’t know what to think. 

Eventually Aoko is there to pick him up and walk him home. The class seems to have agreed not to make a big deal of the event, but they’re sending furtive glances his way. Akako and Hakuba stare a bit longer than is considered polite. He ignores them, for now. Maybe he’ll talk to them later.

They walk in silence, but, predictably, when they’re clear of the others, Aoko turns to him, “What happened?” 

Normally Kaito would give her crap for being so quick with the mop, especially after she landed a hit on him, but she looks so worried and close to tears that he doesn’t have the heart to dodge her question. Instead he schools his poker face into not-angry and more teasing. He laughs at her, “What are you saying? Worried that you’ll be seen as a violent girl after hitting me?

Okay, so maybe there would still be some teasing. It’s what he would normally do. 

Aoko swings her bag at him in retaliation. Kaito sways out of the way. The swing is lazy and half-hearted, all too easy to dodge. She must have been really worried, because she’s going way too easy on him. (Admittedly, he’s grateful because he’s not up for his usual acrobatic.)

“Don’t try to get out of this one, what happened?” Aoko asks again. Kaito turns, but she gets into his face. 

“Was it your soulmate?” She whispers. 

Kaito looks around, but there’s no one around. It’s not something he likes to discuss openly. He catches himself a moment later. He doesn’t want to talk about this to Akako. 

“Does it matter?” He says, averting his eyes. 

Aoko ‘hmphs,’ but doesn’t pursue the topic. Kaito peeks at her and sees she’s looking away. She still looks more worried than angry. 

“Kaito, I know how important your soulmate is…” She mumbles. 

Kaito sighs. He gets that she’s worried for him, but he really doesn’t want to talk about the topic with her. After her rejection (and then subsequent proposal), Kaito has always been sensitive to talking about romance and soulmates with her. Although he believes in soulmates, really believes in them, Aoko has been the only one close to have shaken his conviction of them (not that she knew). If there was anyone that could have made him give up his soulmate, it would have been her. Talking to her about his soulmate- sometimes it leaves a bad taste in Kaito’s mouth. 

“You’ve been so tired lately...” Aoko says. 

Kaito swallows. She hasn’t caught onto his nightly activities, has she?

“And you’ve been staying up all night- don’t try to lie, your light’s on all night!” Aoko accuses, pointing a finger at him. 

Kaito lets out a ‘geh’ at the sudden finger in his face. His eyes cross. Shit. He hadn’t realized that Aoko noticed so much. It’s true that he’s been staying up late to practice his tricks and plan his heists. He hadn’t realized that he left the light on so often. Now that he remembered, Aoko had the habit of getting up early and staying up late to wait for her father to return home. 

...Which meant she probably would see him get home at the same time as her dad on the night of Kid heists. 

He’s going to have be more careful from now on. 

“Is it your soulmate?” She asks again. 

“If it’s about my soulmate, will you leave me alone?” Kaito throws out. 

Surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, Aoko backs off instantly. She’s a careful distance away from him. Still close, but not too close. She stares at him and then slowly nods. 

“I’ll leave you alone, but just this once. And only because I know how important your soulmate is.” 

She pauses. Then adds, slowly, “But Kaito, you know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

“Of course!” Kaito automatically replies with a smile, even though it’s a lie. It’s been a lie for a very long time now, not even counting becoming the whole thing with Kaito Kid. The words fall easily out of his mouth. 

“Promise me you won’t bottle things up, especially if it’s about your soulmate?” Aoko adds. 

“I won’t.” 

Another lie. Again, easy to lie, but always painful to say, especially to Aoko. And this time he’s using his soulmate for the lie. Something bitter swells up inside him, but he swallows it down and maintains his poker face. 

“Okay, I’ll hold you to it,” Aoko says, not realizing how much those words burned Kaito. Luckily, she’s satisfied and they move onto other topics. 

They chat about what Kaito missed in class and soon she’s smiling and being her energetic self once more. He’s happy to see a happy expression on Aoko’s face. He keeps his own poker face in place, making sure to laugh and tease at the right moments. When they get home, Aoko mentions dinner will be chicken, but Kaito declines saying he’s having dinner with Ji. Thankfully, Aoko backs off with little resistance. 

He waves to her goodbye and goes inside, collapsing in the doorway. 

Kaito clutched his chest, even though he knows the pain isn’t physical. 

How did things become this way?

Being Kaito Kid is the best feeling in the world.. when he’s actually being the phantom thief. When he’s not he gets weighed down by thoughts of Pandora, his father, and all the secrets he’s keeping locked up. 

Ugh, if he starts thinking about it now, he’s going to spend the whole night being emotional. Kaito pulls himself up. He said he was going to get dinner with Ji and he’s going to do it (if he doesn’t then he’ll be in a dark mood for awhile). 

Dinner goes well. Ji welcomes into the shop and he eats a hot meal (one that was probably better than whatever Aoko would have cooked) and chats with the old man while the bar is still open. Once he’s done, Kaito’s in a better mood and helps out around shop: using his deft hands to make fancy drinks and do a few trick shots at the billiard tables. He manages to make the bar comers laugh, and more importantly, manages to get a few chuckles out of Ji. 

When the billiards bar finally, they talk shop. After a successful night, Ji is cheerier than normal. Instead of worrying endlessly, Ji goes along with Kaito’s plans and they have a very productive session. 

When Kaito finally makes it home, he tries to hold onto that bright feeling but it inevitably fades. 

\-----

After that day, Kaito is continually surprised by his soulmate. He hears his soulmate sing, like a child, tone deaf and bratty. But then the voice will change to that of a middle aged man, a young woman, an older man, and many others. 

Could he be going crazy?

Is it the stress from the Kid heists? 

It didn’t matter. He shouldn’t care about his soulmate right now, not when his life is in danger and Pandora is still out there. After the jewel is found, Kaito can go looking for his soulmate. 

He checks jewel after jewel and the voice in his head still shifts frequently, even going back to the voice he thought was a soulmate. 

Kaito tries to distract himself from the man questions he has about his soulmate, and plans heist after heist. Each heist becomes grander and grander, flashier and more complicated with each trick. He drinks in the reactions from the officers and the audience, and laughs when he manages to outwit the men in black. 

But still, no Pandora. 

Eventually he sets his eyes on the biggest black pearl, the Black Star. Ji voices his doubts about this heist, saying that it wasn’t worth going after such a heavily guarded prize (and could a pearl be considered a jewel?). However, Kaito couldn’t let the chance pass. Due to the emotional attachment to the Black Star, the Suzuki Corporation normally kept the thing locked up. The gemstone attraction at the Beika Museum would be one of the rare times it would be out in the open. He can steal it once it’s been put on display. 

...Well, that’s what an amateur would think. 

But Kaito already knows that the displayed pearl will be a fake. The picture that was sent out to show a sneak peak of the display, also previewed the Black Star. Judging from the unusual sheen and glassy surface, it was a copy. The real pearl would have already lost its luster. 

Normally Kaito wouldn’t have expended the effort going after a fake jewel, but the fact that the jewel was being backed by such a prestigious corporation interested Kaito. While he had many opponents so far, none were as far reaching as the Suzuki Corporation. He could receive a lot of attention for this heist, and Kaito wonders if maybe the attention would make it harder for the men in black to operate. 

Once that idea passes through his mind, Kaito decides to go after the Black Star. He’ll use the fake to call out the Suzuki Corporation and force them into displaying the real one. 

He sends the heists notice everywhere, including the Suzuki Corporation. He wonders who he’ll be up against. Hakuba won’t be attending this heist, he’s gone back to England for a short trip. Nakamori-keibu will probably be there, but Kid could take him easily. However, against the Suzuki Corporation there may be new opponent for him to trick. 

However, on the night of the first heist, there is no sign of another opponent. Chaki isn’t a threat, especially when he’s listening to Sleeping Kogoro’s poor deductions. And Nakamori-keibu wasn’t allying himself with anyone new. Kaito is both relieved and disappointed at the turn out. No competition only makes the heist easier, but no competition also makes this initial heist less impressive than he planned. 

He stands on the top of the Beika Hotel and the sound of triumphant brass instruments fills his head. His soulmate is still awake and is happy about something. It perks him up. Even if his soulmate has been causing him trouble, he’s glad that they’re doing okay and that they’re happy. Kaito will finish with this Pandora business and get back to his soulmate. Which means stealing the Black Star first. 

He sighs. He should be happy that there isn’t anyone new trying to stop this heist. Easy heists meant finding Pandora faster. 

Activating his glider, Kaito Kid flies to the top of the Haido City Hotel. Surprisingly, he sees someone already there. Someone who figured out his heist notice? But they aren’t shooting at him and the proportions are all wrong… What? A kid?

\-----

Shinichi turns off his phone, cutting off the Professor’s voice. He’ll apologize later, but for now, he concentrates on the man in front of him: Kaito Kid. 

What an entrance.

It’s as if the whole world is revolving itself around this man in this moment. The roof is silent, the wind not loud enough to cover up the sound of his steps, yet the wind is strong enough that the man’s cape flows behind him. The moon is bright enough that he’s glowing in his all white ensemble. As he approaches, Shinichi can finally see his face. The thief is young, in his 30s, no 20s, wait- younger..? Are they the same age? 

A part of him settles. His instinct tells him he’s right; a master thief who’s his age. 

As he approaches, Shinichi feels a frisson of something he hadn't felt in a long time: excitement. 

It’s been so long since he’s taken a case that hadn’t ended in pain and murder. 

But something tells him that here is an opponent who he will be able to match wits with, without being at the expense of another. 

It’s funny. Kudo Shinichi never got the chance to even catch a glimpse of the man during that heist months ago and here he is in front of him. 

Kaito Kid wouldn’t it, but here Shinichi is to continue their match.

_ What sort of tricks will you do today? _

\-----

The music in Kaito’s head peters out and is replaced by the silence of the atmosphere. It’s a little disappointing, but during a heist the silence will probably work better for him in the long run. 

He’s tempted to call out to the kid, but an audience of one is still an audience, so Kaito performs. Despite the wind, the roof is quiet. He utilizes that to its full potential and the sound of his shoes clearly echo in the silence. The wind ruffles his cape. And the moon creates a perfect backlight. With the addition of his poker face, his performance is perfect. 

As Kaito walks closer he realizes that the boy in front of him is just that, a boy. He’s probably no older than seven. 

His expression is of awe when Kaito approaches and satisfaction curls low in Kaito’s belly. 

“Hey boy, what are you doing here?” Kaito asks. 

The boy doesn’t answer. There’s a flash of movement  and a whistle. Then there’s a bright burst of light against the night sky. A firework. The subsequent ‘boom’ resonates through the night. 

Oh? 

“Fireworks!” The boy says gleefully at the resulting flare. 

Kaito hides his surprise, but he can’t help but stare at the lingering light in the air. Immediately, a helicopter turns in their direction. There’s no doubt that the police would be here within moments. 

“Oh, a helicopter. It looks like it noticed us,” the boy points out. 

Kaito allows his gaze to slowly slide over to the boy in front of him. A singular firework lit and set off to attract attention. Just who was this boy?

“Boy… Looks like you’re not just a normal brat,” 

“Edogawa Conan, a detective.”

The boy- no, the detective smirks. Finally, an answer to this twist in Kaito’s night. The detective boy turns so the moonlight hits his glasses just so, and all Kaito can see is a smug grin on his face while the wind blows through his hair. Hmph. Confident and smart. Edogawa Conan lifts his head and Kaito can see piercing blue eyes behind the glasses. 

Well, well, well. 

Kaito wasn’t expecting a performance of his own. Kaito is tempted to clap. 

“Wow…” 

And he hadn’t been expecting a new player so late in this heist. And a competent one too, much more clever than that sleeping detective. 

“Anyway, it is okay?” The detective boy asks, pointing at the approaching helicopter. “Mr.Kid the Phantom Thief? If you don’t hurry and get away, the helicopter will get here…” The boy continues all smiles. 

What a brat, Kaito thinks, although all he wants to do is smile. He had thought that this heist would be simple, boring even. 

Kaito feels excitement slowly bubble up inside him. No, he shouldn’t be happy. This is a complication. (But Kaito Kid is happy. He always enjoys being able to use his magic against worthy opponents. Winning against them is so much more satisfying when they’re competent.)

Kaito makes a show of thinking. He carefully watches the boy out of the corner of his eye. Judging by his expression, the detective boy had something else up his sleeve. Something literally up his sleeve, maybe a hidden weapon?

Kaito almost laughs aloud. How interesting! The boy detective was thinking about defeating him, Kaito Kid, by himself without help from the police. What an interesting opponent. The boy is proving himself to be a hindrance to the heist. 

But, being Kaito Kid isn’t always about the serious nature of finding Pandora and catching the men in black. Being Kid is also about following the legacy his father left him, it’s about the performance, the audience- it’s about the magic! 

Why be Kaito Kid if he didn’t steal in style?

Right then and there, Kaito decides to do a special trick for his new opponent. 

Kaito pulls out the radio he had been using to tap into the police communications and starts calling all the officers to the roof of the hotel using Chaki’s voice. The boy’s expression is instantly shocked. For good measure, Kaito uses Nakamori-keibu’s voice to call all of his officers too. The little detective’s expression morphs again and Kaito can see the tinge of awe at his performance. 

Kaito almost laughs again. A receptive audience, the best kind. 

Then the little detective’s face twists into disbelief. 

“Satisfied?” He asks. The boy doesn’t reply. He waits until a helicopter focuses it’s spotlight him, the wind from it’s rotor whipping his cape into a frenzy, and he grins when he adds:

“Tantei-kun?”

The detective doesn’t get the chance to answer him. 

It’s an easy escape. Kid drops a flash bomb, pretends to fly away in his glider, drops his heist notice, and then changes into a police uniform. It’s almost too easy. 

So easy in fact that he can’t help but tease his new opponent. 

“Hey boy, did you know? Phantom thief’s are artists who creatively steal their targets, but detective don’t amount to anything more than critics who look at the remains and try to find faults.”

And Kaito Kid ‘disappears’.

Tantei-kun’s expression is priceless. His head whips around trying to figure out what has happened and Kaito has to stop himself from laughing. Instead he leaves with a group of officers, letting someone else discover the heist notice that he’s left on the ground. This one is the real one, one that will hopefully get the Suzuki Corporation to bring out the real Black Star. He’s looking forward to stealing this jewel and Kaito wonders if Edogawa Conan will be there, continuing to prove himself a worthy opponent. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: Thanks everyone for the lovely comments! I'm glad you're enjoying the fic! The comments and kudos really inspire me to write more.
> 
> *Author's Note from 7/8/19: So I've had some comments about it, but I wanted to clarify that in this chapter, Kaito does not faint because he hears his heartsong as a kid's voice (Conan). But he gets distracted by Conan's voice, while fighting with Aoko, and in turn takes a hit with Aoko's mop. Sorry for the confusion, maybe I'll edit that later.


	4. Reaction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word Count: ~4.9k
> 
> Date Published:7/8/19

His soulmate is humming a jazzy tune, a pleasant song that would sound great on a trumpet or an alto sax, but it’s absolute driving Shinichi nuts right now. Ugh, he still can’t see because of the flashbang (even thought he had managed to cover his eyes in time too) and his hearing is being affected by his heartsong. Conan continues to blink, hoping that his eyesight will return to normal soon. He doesn’t want to go running around with impaired eyesight. Especially when he needs to use his tranquilizer watch to know the phantom thief out. 

Conan brings a hand up to his eyes and smacks his hand into his glasses. Ugh, it doesn’t look like his eyes are recovering anytime soon. Giving in, Conan closes his eyes and counts to one hundred. Hopefully resting his eyes will bring his eyesight back to normal. 

When Shinichi opens them, Kogoro-occhan is staring disapprovingly at him. He jerks back. The man frowns at him, but doesn’t hit him on the head like he’s expecting. Not that he looks closer, the man's hair and facial hair is different, not to mention Kogoro-occhan has never owned a suit like the one the man in front of him is wearing. 

His frown deepens. “Hey boy,” the man says, voice gruff but gentle, “what are you doing up here?”

And Shinichi realizes he knows this vice. It’s clearly the one that Kaito Kid has imitated: Nakamori-keibu. 

“Ah, well…” Shinichi trails off and laughs childishly. He tries to pull up his childish innocent act. It’s a bit difficult, after meeting the thief he’s on high alert and his body doesn't relax. Please he’s surrounded by police officers both from this man’s and Chaki’s task force. Their stares are concentrated on his back. 

Nakamori notices the attention and immediately shoots everyone a stern look. The officers quickly averts their eyes and the oppressive atmosphere lightens. Wow, that was impressive. Shinichi- Conan can’t believe that he could ever mistake this man for Kogoro-occhan. Clearly this man was inspector for a reason. (Later, Conan would realize that maybe the two men did share more than a passing resemblance.)

The inspector kneels down so that the two of them are at eye level. 

“That thief didn’t hurt you, did he?” He asks, gently. 

Conan immediately shakes him head. Violent, the thief was not. 

“That’s good,” Nakamori says, ruffling his hair as he stands up. Shinichi blinks and has to fight the urge to fix his hair. “Now you can explain to me why you’re here and don’t try to lie boy, my officers saw you make a beeline for the roof.” 

“Well…” 

Shinichi laughs nervously again. He wasn’t sure how to explain himself out of this one. 

\-----

“I see, so you’re staying with Sleeping Kogoro and you figured out the heist notice,” Nakamori says with a nod. 

They're sitting in the hotel restaurant. The other patrons are gone, but the hotel is willing to stay open for the police officers and a child. Conan sips on the hot chocolate the inspector bought him, even though he’s craving a coffee like the other man has. 

Normally he could be a brat and reject the sweets, but this man is much more clever than the others, especially since he figured out the heist notice. Conan had been hoping that Nakamori-keibu might believe that he had gotten the heist information from Kogoro and Chaki, but he supposes it’s too much of a stretch considering the others hadn’t been able to figure out the heist notice. He’s not sure how to feel about someone knowing that Conan figured out the heist notice. As expected of an officer that didn’t underestimate the young Kaito Kid. 

“Detectives are just getting younger and younger,” Nakamori says leaning back in his chair. 

“Me? A detective?” Conan says weakly. 

“Don’t try to fool me, boy.  _ You  _ figured out the heist notice,” Nakamori says with a flat look. 

“Yes…” Conan agrees, because it doesn’t look like the man will change his mind anytime soon. 

Nakamori continues to look at him and Conan takes another sip of his hot chocolate. He’s not a big fan, the beverage is really sweet, but the heat is warming him up after being on the roof. 

Hm? Now that he thinks about it, between the treatment on the roof and the hot chocolate, he’s not being treated like a criminal is he? In fact, the officer is being really nice to him. While he takes another sip, Conan peeks up at Nakamori-keibu with wide eyes (knowing that it made his wide childish eyes, look even more innocent). 

Nakamori frowned even harder in response. 

“Are you coming to the next heist?” He asks. 

“Yes.” 

Nakamori turns slightly in his seat and continues to frown. “But you’re coming with others, not by yourself like tonight.” 

“Yes, I’m coming with Kogoro-ojisan.” 

“And?” 

“And Ran-neechan,” Conan adds. He doesn’t quite know where the conversation is going, but he didn’t see how honesty was going to hurt. 

Nakamori-keibu nodded again. “Okay, let's bring you home.” 

“Eh?” 

Did he hear that right? 

“It’s past your bedtime and you should be sleeping,” Nakamori says as if Conan didn’t know. 

Well, Conan did know. He just wasn’t sure why it was relevant to the conversation. 

Ugh, the officers are probably going to bring him back home now. They were sure to wake Ran if they pulled up in a cop car. She had a sixth sense for that sort of thing. 

“Do you have someone at home?” The officer asks. 

“...Yes.” 

“Then you’ll have to sneak in,” Nakamori says with a nod. 

“Eh?”

The man gives him a look. “I bet you’re a bit of a know-it-all and you’ll continue to take part in trying to catch Kid right?”

Conan nods. 

“Young detectives, all the same,” Nakamori mumbles. Then continues in a louder voice, “If you’re going to investigate, then do it safely! Stick with your family. And if you find anything, be sure to report it to the task force, okay? Don’t get hurt trying to catch Kid yourself.”

Conan’s first instinct is to not make any promises, but the request wasn’t unreasonable and the man was doing him a favor by keeping his activities a secret. He could do those two things: report things when possible and don’t get hurt. 

“I will,” Conan says sincerely. 

“Good,” Nakamori says. He reaches over to ruffle Conan’s hair. “But boy, I’ll know if you’re lying to me and I’ll tell Mori and your neechan if you get up to something dangerous.” 

Conan accepts his messed up hair with all the grace of a seven year old, which is to say, none at all. He runs a hand through his hair, trying to fix it. 

How ominous. Nakamori-keibu probably is smart enough to tell if Conan is up to something too. But he understood where the man is coming from, he is, for all appearances, a little kid running around on rooftops. Really, he's lucky that Nakamori-keibu isn’t telling Kogoro and Ran. Kogoro would have hit him for sure and Ran would have scolded him and be  _ disappointed  _ in him (the absolute worse). Then they might have banned him from the heist, and if he couldn’t go, Ran couldn’t go, which would disappoint Sonoko and…

It’s much easier for everyone if his little adventure is a secret. 

Shinichi finished off his hot chocolate like a good kid would and cleaned up under Nakamori-keibu’s watchful eye. Then he’s buckled up (in the man’s own car even, not a patrol car) and is dropped off at the Mori Detective Agency. The inspector only leaves after Conan gives him a wave from inside the building. He only leaves the window when the car is out of sight.

Then Conan checks on Ran. She’s sleeping peacefully and Conan only watches her for a moment before tucking her in and leaving the room. He manages to get into bed before Kogoro-occhan gets back home. The man grumbles softly, complaining about how ‘it wasn’t his fault that he got the heist notice wrong’, and how ‘Kid probably changed his plans when he saw the officers after him’. The man falls asleep as soon as he gets into bed. 

Conan is finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. It looks like this night will stay a secret. What an eventful evening. And there was still the actual heist to attend. He would have to be sure to prepare for it. 

Conan reviews the information in his head, but quickly finds himself blinking to stay awake. It isn’t long before he drifts off to sleep. 

\-----

What. 

Hot chocolate and the kid is getting ferried back by Nakamori-keibu himself!?! 

After disguising himself as an officer, Kaito sticks around With two different tasks forces (that aren’t trying to work together), Kaito could easily slip between the two groups and do some information gathering. 

However, he isn’t expecting to see Nakamori-keibu absolutely spoil the tantei-kun he met on the room. Naughty detective boys who snuck onto rooftops at night to confront thieves didn’t deserve hot chocolate. 

Kaito isn’t able to eavesdrop on the conversation without looking suspicious, but he is able to watch over the conversation. Really, Ginzo-san is such a dad. His first reaction is to take care of a kid he muet, even though the kid is trespassing on a heist. 

(And Kaito isn’t jealous of the boy! Not at all!)

Who is that kid fooling anyway? How could anyone not see that the kid is a mastermind and a detective that could rival the minds of the police force? (Maybe a certain high school detective threw off their view of what is normal.) Obviously tantei-kun is a precocious kid genius who knew what sort of trouble he’s getting into it. After all, he needed to prepare the firework beforehand But no one else seems to see it. 

If it wasn’t suspicious, then Kaito would have followed the two in the car.

Instead, after they get in the car Kaito slips away. He has a long journey back home ahead of him. 

Eventually, he reaches his home tired and hungry. Kaito has to sneak in through one of the windows, when he sees the lights on in the Nakamori household. Then he proceeds to walk into table corners and doorways, because he can’t turn on the lights in the house without alerting Aoko that he’s awake. When he manages to get into his room, he throws his heist clothes into the hidden workshop and collapses into bed. Even with the blinds closed, there is still light peeking through from the other home. 

Kaito wants to join them, pretend that the sound of the car woke him up. He would be invited in by Aoko and Ginzo-san to share a late night snack. Aoko would tease him about being such a light sleeper and Kaito would tease her back. Ginzo-san would laugh at their antics while he ate his dinner. Then he and Aoko would share a smile over cheering up the old man (who would surely be in a bad mood due to losing Kid). 

Then the Nakamoris would get ready for bed and send Kaito home with the leftovers (as long as it wasn’t fi- fi-  _ that _ ). And Kaito could polish of the leftovers and go to sleep easily, with a full belly, after a successful night of being Kaito Kid.  

But he can’t, not tonight. 

Normally the switch between being Kaito Kid to Kuroba Kaito was easy, but it was always harder on the nights that he lets Kuroba Kaito bleed into the actions that Kaito Kid is doing. It was only for a little bit during reconnaissance, but that change in mindset was enough to affect him. He isn’t sure if he could keep his poker face tonight. 

A small part of his mind blames Edogawa Conan for his bad mood, even though he knows it isn’t the kids fault. The kid is just a kid, and Kaito’s problems are his own, but he can’t help it. 

(Damn Edogawa Conan, looking like a younger Kuroba Kaito. Of course Nakamori Ginzo, big hearted Ginzo-san, couldn’t help but treat a boy that was all alone with anything but kindness. It only served as a reminder of how Kaito is taking advantage of the man and his daughter by continuing to be Kaito Kid.)

Kaito falls asleep to the thought of how maybe the next heist would be the last one, how he wouldn’t have to lie anymore, and how he’s going to get to the bottom of the mystery that is Edogawa Conan. 

\-----

Edogawa Conan, six years old, is in his first year of grade school. He is staying with Mori Kogoro and Mori Ran at the Mori Detective Agency. Currently his parents are working overseas and a family friend asked the Mori’s to take care of him…

Kaito flips through the files. It is one of many. Laid out in front of him are the files on all of the passengers for the SElizabeth, including Edogawa Conan. There are also records of what the Suzuki Corporation are planning for the cruise, including food, entertainment, staffing, and other interesting details. (Ordering hundreds of replica Black Stars, how interesting.) 

He’s already reviewed all of the files, but he can’t help but come back to Edogawa Conan’s file. Tantei-kun’s file is one of the most unique files so far. Maybe it’s because he’s a child, but his records are lacking in information. He didn’t seem to exist until his stay with the Mori’s (but maybe he didn’t go to school before grade school). And he didn’t seem to have any blood relation to the Mori’s (but they wouldn’t be taking care of a kid just because, would they?). And his schooling and files had been taken care of by an Agasa Hiroshi (his actual relation?). 

But the detective boy’s relation to the case is becoming clear. Mori Ran is best friends with Suzuki Sonoko, who must have told the famous detective Mori Kogoro about Kid’s heist notice. Then it fell into tantei-kun’s hands, who managed to figure out the notice. A six year old figuring out his heist notice. Who would have thought such a thing could happen?

His curiosity is piqued. 

Maybe Kaito would do a little more leg work to find out more...

\-----

His soulmate is humming again. It’s one of the common songs his soulmate hums. A slow waltz of some sort with no words. It’s been getting stuck in Shinichi’s head with more frequency than usual. He hears the song mainly in the middle of the night, but he hears it every once in awhile during the day. Luckily the song didn’t hamper Shinichi’s deductive skills, but Shinichi didn’t want to hear the song all day. Especially since the song is.. Melancholy. Over and over his soulmate would hum the song, repeat it so many times that he can’t let it go. 

Today when he gets the song stuck in his head, Shinichi closes some of the case files he’s looking at. He wouldn’t get anything done at this rate. He might as well head back to the detective agency so Ran wouldn’t worry. Later he planned to go play with the kids anyways. He couldn’t hole up in Agasa-hakase’s house to read case files all day. 

The past few days he had been looking at any information he could gather about Kaito Kid in preparation for the heist on the 19th. The information is a bit odd to say the least. His father had gathered his own case files on the phantom thief, but Shinichi quickly discards them. They were all dated, for the Kaito Kid that he saw on the roof was clearly young, too young to be the phantom thief his father matched wits against. 

Based on the phantom thief’s most recent heists (and the rough time he had with them), this is a new Kaito Kid. 

Shinichi would have to generate his own case file for this Kaito Kid. 

But he would do that later. He has to get back to the Mori’s in time. Ran wanted to take him out with her while she and Sonoko went dress shopping. He isn’t very fond of the task (especially since he knows Sonoko would be going to store after store without break), but he wants to keep them company and get more information from Sonoko. 

The Suzuki heiress has already revealed that her family had accepted the thief's challenge and was going to bring the Black Star during a party on the cruise ship the S.Elizabeth. Maybe Sonoko would continue to reveal more if Conan went with them. 

However, at the end of the day he’s half regretting his decision of going. The girls had gone to dozen of stored and neither of them has bought a single dress between them. Worse, Ran kept looking around as if she would spot that the Shinichi-look-alike and in order to cheer her up, Sonoko would make wild speculations on his character. 

There are only a few bright spots in the day: when the girls smile over cute dresses and when they eat a delicious lunch together. Lunch had been Sonoko’s treat since she had been the one to suggest the shopping and Ran had treated them to desert. They had been all smiles through the meal and Conan was very happy to see them so cheery. (And his soulmate perkep up during the meal. They switched from that melancholy song to a lighter tune. A bit of an odd choice though, the Pink Panther theme song.)

Eventually after lunch (and after going to a lot more stores) the women finally finish their shopping trip. Now they’re at the detective agency. Ran and Sonoko are giggling over fashion in Ran’s room, while he and Kogoro-occhan are hiding out in the office. They decide on accessories and shoes, and Ran eventually settles on a red dress that she says she’ll need to get dry cleaned. 

Their smiles are so bright. Conan can handle a few more weeks like this if it means Ran’s happy. 

\----- 

Kaito isn’t a big fan of stalking people (a very different task than just casing a joint), but it was often a necessary evil for gathering information. He has already finished gathering data on several others (potential disguises), when the opportunity to follow Mori Ran, Suzuki Sonoko, and Edogawa Conan comes up. 

It’s an informative data collection session, especially if he needs to use one of them as a disguise. He had.. many hours to collect the information. (He almost gave up several times during the day. How was the tantei-kun so patient? He’s the most well-behaving brat Kaito has ever seen. Especially when the kid is so obviously unhappy to be shopping all day.)

Eventually they make their way home, thank goodness (after buying nothing, he might add) and that’s when Kaito slips away. 

Once he’s hidden away in the Kid Cave, Kaito starts assembling his plan for the heist. He has already figured out what the Suzuki’s plans are for the ship and has planned accordingly. He has an entrance and exit plan, but now he needs a disguise to steal the Black Star away. 

Kaito brings up the files of his possible disguises. The most obvious answers are Hatamoto Shoji, Mifune Takuya, and Tomizawa Yuzo… Close enough to the target, but not too close to the group that he needed very specific information about them. They also had the right personalities, schmoozing with the target was not out of character. 

However, easy isn’t good enough. Usually keeping his heists simple is Kaito’s best option (more flexibility meant better options, especially when things start to inevitably go wrong), but he has to be clever too. This is a special heist, and he’s going to need to be super careful to fool the task force and the detectives on board. 

He’ll run through his plan again. 

His plan is to waylay the Suzuki Shiro and Suzuki and Suzuki Ayako and take the father’s place. Then he would switch out of his disguise and become the sister. Division 2 always have trouble when he disguises as women. Chaki’s group would probably be even worse. Then it would be a matter of getting close to Suzuki Tomoko and stealing the Black Star. 

But just in case, Kaito made a few back up plans, things he could change last moment. This included making a fake coupon and flyer for a dry cleaning service and slipping into the Mori’s mail. 

Kaito uses the remaining days to continue gathering information, takes a call for the dry cleaning of a dress, picks up the dress in disguise, plans out additional exit routes, have Ji dry clean the dress and make an exact replica, map out the path of ship in case he has to swim, and then returns the dress. A few days left until April 19th, and Kaito’s starts getting a better feeling about his back-up plan. His interest in tantei-kun has grown after learning and observing more about the boy. The kid is obviously spoiling for a fight, so why shouldn’t Kaito give him a challenge?

Kaito will go with his original plan of pretending to be Suzuzki Shiro, but then change into Mori Ran. She’s a close friend to Suzuki Sonoko and had a kind nature. It wouldn’t be weird if she helped Sonoko’s mother should she stumble.

(And this way, Kaito could match wits against Edogawa Conan.)

\-----

The confrontation is spectacular. 

Although Kaito’s not happy about having to swim back (he’s trying to wipe the experience away from his memory), the heist itself brought him great satisfaction. His plan to sneak in went perfectly. Then he showed up that other (amateur!!!) magician. Stealing the Black Star, everything had been going exactly as planned. 

So Kaito had been surprised when the small detective had pulled him away for a deduction. Kaito might have been expecting something a little more Hakuba-like, where his righteousness affected his every action and how the detective would immediately out Kid no matter the surrounding chaos. (But he suppses he shouldn’t have assumed, especially after the tantei-kun had already been willing to shoot fireworks off of rooftops to attract police helicopters.) 

Edogawa Conan is a different type of detective, more cautious for those around him (but not for himself) and more quiet. He wonders why the young boy is like this already, already careful and thoughtful, especially against what he perceived as a more dangerous opponent. (Kaito Kid isn’t dangerous, but he wonders if there were others that were.) 

Not that he doesn’t like the detective’s style (definitely better than Hakuba’s brute force method, although that soccer ball kick will definitely make him think twice). The little detective’s care showed in his deduction and Kaito appreciated the way the kid took apart the heist piece by piece until it was just detective versus thief. 

It was a thrill to be able to match wits with an opponent of a similar wavelength. He may have had to return the Black Star but he gained an interesting opponent. 

(And there were no outside forces to interfere with the heist. Kaito had been half-prepared to fight off the men in black, after they had appeared on a train, but he supposed a cruise ship was too difficult for them to infiltrate. The heist was fun in a way that pasts heist weren’t, it was just about the magic and the thrill of getting the prize.)

\-----

Shinichi rubs a hand on his face, willing his cheeks to turn back to normal. Thankfully, Ran is waking slow enough that he wouldn’t be flustered when she woke up. He can’t believe he fell for the trick. However the thought of Ran laying about somewhere, vulnerable, well, it  had override his logic. (And he hadn’t known the thief well enough to know that Kid wouldn't have stripped Ran naked. He doesn’t want to admit it, but he’s grateful that Kaito Kid is a gentleman.)

He tosses the extra clothing to the side (he doesn’t want to explain why he’s carrying them) and went to Ran’s side. “Ran-neechan! Are you okay?” 

Ran rubs her eyes and sat up on her own power. Some of the men that found her go to call for the police and the on-board doctor. 

On man stays behind to question her. “What happened?” The man asks. 

“It was Kaito Kid, he pretended to be Ran-neechan to escape,” Shinichi says. 

“Kaito Kid! Watch after her boy, I have to tell Nakamori-keibu,” and the man dashes off. He must be part of the task force that had been deployed by Nakamori earlier. 

Ran sways and Shinichi immediately moves to help prop her up. He has to use his whole body, so she wouldn’t tilt any further. 

“Conan-kun?” Ran says, sleepily. 

“Yeah, it’s me,” he says as she blinks. 

Then she starts getting more alert. 

“What happened?” She says, sitting up abruptly. Then she immediately starts looking over Shinichi, “Are you okay, Conan-kun?” 

Ah, right, he’s Conan now. Conan gives her a reassuring smile. “I’m fine, Ran-neechan-“ 

“ARE YOU GUYS OKAY?” 

Nakamori bursts into the area, eyes wildly looking around. When he sees Ran on the ground, his eyes widen and he roars, “We’re getting the both of them to a doctor!” 

And to both their surprise, Nakamori scoops Ran up into a princess carry, and another task force member grabs Conan so he’s squashed against the man’s chest. They’re so surprised, that they don’t have time to react before the two men sprint down the ship hallways. In seconds, they’re being set in front of the ship doctor. The doctor reaches for Conan first, but Conan waves the man away, “Ran-neechan was the one that was knocked out.” 

Nakamori, who is looking away, curses at that. 

Conan looks at him curiously. 

“He’s dressed up as girls before- even my daughter, but he doesn’t usually knock them out,” he explains. “Damn that criminal. Gentleman thief my ass.” 

So he normally dresses like a man if he’s knocking someone out? Conan wonders what changed. There were plenty of other sto pick- and then he realizes that maybe he’s the changing factor. In order to fool him, Kid dressed as someone close to him. Or maybe Conan is being too arrogant ad reading too deeply into the situation. After all, if he’s dressed like a woman before, regularly like Nakamori-keibu said, it could be coincidence this time. If only Conan had that information beforehand. He’s about to scold himself more when the doctor gives his verdict. 

“Well, you’re okay, Miss,” the doctor states. “Based on what happened, you were given sleeping pills. Plenty of fluids and a good night’s rest should flush them from your system.” 

“Thank you, doctor,” Ran says. Her eyes are drooping and her voice is getting thick. 

“Ah, you still might be a bit sleepy. That’s normal,” the doctor adds.  

Conan sighs in relief. 

Nakamori commands that her family and friends be (discreetly) brought here. Then turns to them, “I’ll let you rest, Mori-san.” 

Ran is situated on a bed as Conan gets the verdict that he’s fine. The boy is about to take a seat next to Ran, when he’s swept from the room by the inspector. They’re surrounded by members of the task force, but they keep a respectful distance and deliberately look away. There’s no escaping Nakamori-keibu who’s kneeling in front of him once again. He’s frowning and he places a hand on Conan’s shoulder, keeping him in place. 

“What did I say, boy?” Nakamori growls. 

“Welll, eh heh heh…” Conan really doesn’t know what to say. 

“When did you figure out who Kid was?” 

“I don’t know-“ 

“When?” 

Conan definitely isn’t getting out of this one by acting like a kid. “When the real Black Star was stolen,” he says. Not a lie. He only had a suspicion when the Kid card appeared. 

Nakamori-keibu crosses his arms. “And I was already pursuing those who had escaped the room…” The man growls again. “Okay, I can see why you confronted Kid alone.” 

The man looks troubled over not being there and Conan feels a wave of sympathy for the man. He’s only being a worried officer, he’s not trying to make things difficult for Conan. If Conan was actually a kid, then the man was right to be worried. However, was Kaito Kid really such a dangerous thief? 

“I’m sorry,” Conan says sincerely. He’s not sorry for pursuing the mystery, but he is sorry for worrying the man. 

Nakamori eyes him, but nods, accepting his apology. “Just be careful,” he says, ruffling his hair. Because he’s trying to be forgiven, Conan does not fix his hair right away. 

“Is Kid really a dangerous guy?” Conan asks, letting a childish curiosity bleed into his voice. 

“Hm? He has a no harm policy, but that doesn’t mean people don’t accidentally get hurt on a heist or sick when he leaves them half naked without their clothes. I don’t want to worry about what would happen to a kid,” he explains. 

Well, that doesn’t sound to bad (except for the whole getting sick due to forced nudity), but before Conan can ask anything more, someone yells Ran’s name. It’s Kogoro-occhan with Sonoko in tow. They barrell through the hallway and sweep Conan with them into the infirmary. 

After that, the night finishes uneventfully, with the group sticking by Ran’s side. Conan settles into his chair and tries to relax. It was a good mystery. One that wasn’t wrapped up in too much danger like most of his cases. He’s interested in matching wits against the thief again, but after this night, he doesn't think that they'll cross paths again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Thank you all for all the wonderful comments and kudos <3 I really appreciate them all. I've just recently started a new job, so there's been a little bit of upheaval in my life, but fanfiction is forever huh?


	5. The End?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only the ending for this arc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word Count: ~1.7k
> 
> Date Published: 7/9/19

Sonoko chatters on about Kid, while Shinichi feels sick to his stomach. Not only did he receive a far amount of media attention for the heist, Conan’s picture is on the front page of the newspaper. He has opinions on that. None of them good. 

On the one hand, it thrills him to finally receive recognition for his deductions; Nakamori-keibu had made sure that Conan was recognized by the task squad. On the other hand, he’s trying to keep a low profile, and being known as a kid detective is not low profile. 

(The picture had been a surprise for Shinichi. After the SElizabeth had docked, the media had swarmed the ship. The wealthy and powerful had been careful when speaking, and the police would take care of the story. Kogoro-occhan however had taken the chance to talk to the reporters. He had spilled all the details that he knew to the delight of the media. However, the media had caught onto the fact that Conan had been the one to solve the mystery.

Kogoro-occhan had managed to twist the story so that he was part of the story, telling everybody that Conan was his disciple. There were photos taken. 

It wasn’t until today that Coann found out that Kogoro-occhan had also approved of the photos being used by the newspaper. The older man did not realize that he would not be in the picture.)

Maybe Kogoro-occhan would take him a little more seriously in the future. 

Take his advice to heart and not hit him so much. 

Conan snorts. That would be the day. 

He rubs his head at the memory of the bump he received when the lousy detective saw that only Conan was on the newspaper. 

Conan sighs. He wish he isn’t on the newspaper. It would have saved him the bump and it’s a better idea if his skills aren’t acknowledged. After all, it wouldn’t do for Sleeping Kogoro to have a rival detective in his own home. (At least, not one that 

Then he remembered the bump he received when the lousy detective saw that only Conan was in the picture. It was probably a better idea if he wasn’t. After all, it wouldn’t do for Sleeping Mori to have a rival in his own home (not one that he knew of). 

The whole experience is made worse by the fact that the media is calling it a win for Conan. But Conan has seen the thief’s past heist history and knows that all the gems were always returned when stolen. Never had Kaito Kid kept any of the gems. 

The fact that the thief had been able to get the gem, that was a win for the thief. 

For Shinichi to count it as his win, he would need to stop the thief from taking the gem in the first place. Next time, if there is a next time, Shinichi would stop him. It would be tricky, but Shinichi would enjoy the challenge of the chase. He would have to slip away today to do more research about Kaito Kid. 

He felt himself smiling. Somehow things were looking up. 

\-----

A few days later…

Ayumi looks up. Conan’s humming a song. He’s being doing that lately, absently humming under his breath instead of the soft muttering or silent contemplation he’s prone to. He has been dingin more in general. 

When Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi first met Conan, he hadn’t wanted to sing at all. Only a combination of cajoling and annoying the boy had him singing or humming. Even when it was revealed that Conan is atrociously tone deaf, his friends didn’t allow him to get away with not singing. After all, he would only get better with practice. And their music teacher had said that Conan had a good ear. So it was under duress that Conan sang (quietly). 

Ayumi, Genta, and Mutsuhiko thought it was all fun. So did the rest of the class. They all thought it was nice that mature, smart, and good at sports Conan had a weakness. No one made fun of his singing, yet they didn’t let him get away with not singing. Conan who is stand-offish but always kind, if he practiced now then he would get better when he was older. 

So Ayumi thinks it’s nice to hear Conan hum. 

Although…

Ayumi shakes her head when she starts feeling sad. She cheers herself up by reminding herself that they are still young. It is still possible that her and Conan are soulmates. And even if they aren’t, well, Ayumi would figure figure it out when it came to it. 

But… 

The possibility of Conan and her being soulmates is getting smaller and smaller. The others probably thought Conan didn’t like singing because if his voice, but Ayumi wonder if it is because of something, or some _ one _ , else. 

It’s the small things really that led Ayumi to the deduction. How Conan never says that he hates singing because of his voice. Or the fact that on occasion when he gets a song stuck in his head, he gets terribly irritable. Maybe, just maybe, Conan has a soulmate. And he didn’t want to sing because.. His voice is terrible? 

But if Conan already has a soulmate, then it isn’t Ayumi-chan…

She shakes her head again. It didn’t matter. They’re friends, and she wanted her friends to be happy, and if Conan is happy with his soulmate then so be it. 

And Conan has been in a surprisingly good mood lately after the Kid heist. When Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko confronted him about it the day the newspaper came out, Conan hadn’t fought them being told the details. (As long as they kept it secret, which they promised to.) He had laid out the whole encounter, from his confrontation on the roof, to the subsequent return of the Black Star. They congratulated him on the win, but he told them it had been his loss (he had been smiling as he said that). 

And now the humming. 

It’s a tune that Ayumi didn’t recognize, but it was happy. She wondered if his soulmate is humming the same song. 

\----- 

Kaito’s soulmate has been very verbose the last few days. Not that they are singing, but they have been humming quite often. It’s a jaunty tune, a few chords repeated over and over again, most likely a thinking song. In the past few days they hum it very so often at random intervals. 

It always cheers Kaito up to hear his soulmate sing or hum. Even with all the changing-voice business, Kaito has still kept hope and hearing him so often has made him more optimistic about meeting his soulmate (after finding Pandora of course). He wonders if his soulmate has been- embarrassed by him? Or grew out of the non-singing phase, or healed so that he could sing again?

Whatever it is, he is glad to hear his voice!

Especially when he is having the most miserable time of his life. After having to swim back from the SElizabeth, Kaito has most definitely caught a cold. He has to go to school though, it would be too suspicious not to go on the days after Kid heists. 

However as the day passed, he starts feeling worse and worse. He manages to hide the worst of it with his poker face and by straining his voice, but he couldn’t stop the sneezing or the heaving coughs that his body is producing. At least not completely. Anything that would get him sent to the nurses office he made sure to hold back until he got somewhere private, like the roof or the bathroom. 

The next few days he made sure to wear a mask. It supposed to hide the fact that he’s getting worse. (Although judging by the looks Aoko, Hakuba, and Akako sent him, he isn't as successful as he’d like to be.) 

Worse, the day he starts actually considering staying home and resting (and maybe asking Ginzo-san and Aoko to make him their special get-better soup), the Suzuki Corporation announces that they are going to showcase the actual Black Star. After the heist, the fact that the real Black Star hadn’t been showcased was revealed. It was also leaked that the real Black Star looked very different from the fake. 

The family decided that they were already quite lucky, and lucky to not have the jewel stolen that they could afford to bring it out more. They would showcase the jewel in the Beika Museum for the last days of the jewel exhibit and Suzuki Tomoko would wear the Black Star out more often.

Kaito has to go. 

He didn’t get the chance to look at the Black Star in the moonlight on the ship. (The detective brat had been too quick to find him out and had brought him into the bowels of the ship.) And no doubt someone had hidden the thing away once the tantei-kun had brought it back. 

If the pearl is going to be showcased, then he has to go and look at it before it’s revealed that it is or isn’t Pandora. After all, a red jewel glowing in the middle of the pearl is sure to get some attention. 

Luckily, as a result of the decision, the gem museum is holding a few parties at night. Kaito can be there at the unveiling of the jewel and steal it if it is Pandora. Unfortunately, Kaito is not going to get better by the night of the part. 

When the night arrives, Kaito spends hours beforehand fixing up his face, making sure he doesn’t look like (because he is still sick). He dresses up as a waiter and fights with a headache the whole night. 

During the party, he quickly ascertains that the Black Star isn’t Pandora. However, he isn’t able to slip away. His reflexes are slowed due to his illness and he isn’t able to escape the taskmaster watching over the wait staff. 

Ugh, he really felt terrible, and he’s probably going to get everybody sick. He has a do-no-harm policy during his heists, but it looks like he isn’t going to be able to keep that promise for this heist. He should have dressed as security instead of food service employee. Those lazy jerks only had to stand around and look pretty. 

Eventually he gets home and collapses into bed. That’s one gem down, only a few thousand more to go. Kaito doesn’t get the chance to dwell on that thought, because he quickly falls asleep. He dreams of the day that he would find Pandora, and then find his soulmate. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: Thanks everybody for reading this story! A whole series rewrite was a little too ambitious for me, so I just wanted to include this first meeting between Conan and Kaito. Maybe I would write more for this world, but since there would be a LOT to write, I don’t know if that will happen. I plotted out a little bit (especially how they meet), but it was dependent on how certain things would happen in Detective Conan, and how the series would end. 
> 
> I have a few other DCMK fics in progress at the moment, so look forward to those~
> 
> Thanks again for reading this story~


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